CIIF asks for higher biodiesel blend

The CIIF (Coconut Industry Investment Fund) Oils Mills Group has renewed its call for the Department of Energy to increase the minimum mandated biodiesel blend from the current 2 percent to 5 percent, a company official said. CIIF OMG president and chief executive officer Jesus Arranza said the company supports the Philippine Coconut Authority's recommendation to the department that the blend be  increased. Biodiesel is a renewable, biodegradable, smoother and cleaner alternative to diesel, manufactured from oils such as crude coconut oil. Used alone, biodiesel is designated B100. If mixed with petroleum diesel, it is designated according to the amount of biodiesel contained in the product. Thus, a higher blend will have more biodiesel in it. Some of the commonly used biodiesel blends are B20, B5 and B2. Arranza said that the call for the higher biodiesel blend was made as early as 2009, when it "was recommended by the CIIF to then-Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes,” and that it should be implemented by the department as soon as possible. “This recommendation, if approved by the DOE, will increase the market for crude coconut oil and thus be beneficial to coconut farmers. Especially now that the world price of CNO has been depressed,” Arranza said. He added that the government's fertilization program will also increase the country's coconut production. An increase in world petroleum prices, and therefore diesel and gasoline prices, due to growing demand also makes this the ideal time to raise the blend, he said. “The recent weakness in the price of coconut oil has caused the price of coco-methyl ester or biodiesel to drop below the price of diesel, something that has never happened before, making it ideal to use more of the alternative fuel,” said Asian Institute of Petroleum Studies Inc. executive director Rafael Diaz “While the DOE’s Energy Plan calls for B5 by 2015 and, eventually, B10 and B20, there is no better opportunity than now when biodiesel is cheaper than diesel," he added. According to Arranza, a B5 biodiesel blend would require 350,000 metric tons (MT) of crude coconut oil. “This would translate only to 23 percent of the annual crude coconut oil production in the country at 1.5 million metric tons, and can very well be supplied by the various oil mills,” he said. And sustained local demand for coconut oil, Arranza added, will eventually mean less dependence on foreign oil. CIIF Oil Mills Group is the country's biggest coconut conglomerate, composed of five coconut oil milling and refining companies: Legaspi Oil Company, San Pablo Manufacturing Corp., Cagayan de Oro Oil Co., Southern Luzon Coconut Oil Mill, and Granexport Manufacturing Corp. The Supreme Court recently upheld its January 24 decision that the CIIF OMG companies, as well as the roughly 750 million sequestered preferred shares in San Miguel Corporation (SMC) that were bought coconut levy funds and registered in the company's name, are owned by the government. — BM, GMA News