Monday Edition

03.16.09

GLOBAL

Crude futures fell nearly 4% Monday to below $45 a barrel after OPEC decided not to cut production further and instead emphasized compliance with previously agreed reductions.

Soybeans gained on speculation that government measures to revive economies may bolster demand for food, animal feed and biofuels. Soybeans for May delivery rose 0.9% to $8.8475, but are still down 46% from a record $16.3675 on July 3, Bloomberg reported Monday.

NORTH AMERICA

President Barack Obama and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had their first White House meeting Saturday where Obama said he admires Silva's efforts to develop biofuels and wants to follow a similar path developing cleaner sources of energy, including biodiesel, for the US.

Magellan Midstream Partners has joined with POET to continue assessing the feasibility of an ethanol pipeline to bring fuel to the East Coast. The pipeline would bring 10 million gal/day of ethanol from Midwestern states to Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, OPIS reports.

US EPA has proposed a comprehensive national GHG emissions reporting system that could serve as the basis for future government climate policies. The proposal would begin requiring data from emitters on January 1, 2010.

SOUTH AMERICA

Argentina's 2007-08 soybean production will total 40 - 42 million mt, a 9% to 12% drop due to drought, and decreased planted area due to high costs, export restrictions, manipulation of markets and other intervention by the government, the Argentine Association of Agricultural Research Consortiums reports.

EUROPE

Zbigniew Komorowski, owner of Polish Mills and Bakoma, is building a 100,000mt RME plant in Poland in which it already has off-take agreements with Swedish companies. J. W. Construction of Poland is also going into biodiesel production.

ASIA / PACIFIC

The February CPO stockpile in Malaysia is likely to fall below January’s level of 1.83 million tonnes due to floods in some palm oil producing states, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin said.

The SET-listed oil refiner Rayong Purifier Plc expects its new 80,000 gallon per day biodiesel plant in Thailand will raise its total revenue by 10% to $670 million. The Company plans to replace diesel with B5 at its 75 service stations by 2011.

Bursa Malaysia is looking at launching its Commodity Murabahah House (CMH), a commodity-based transaction that utilizes CPO-based contracts as its underlying asset, by mid-year.

AFRICA

Petrobras plans to survey the economic area of Sao Tome and Principe and send a mission to look into the possibility of producing biodiesel. Petrobras will also train locals in the oil sector.

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