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MANILA – An oil industry lobby is pushing for an increase in the biodiesel blend to take advantage of a surplus in coconut oil, which makes it cheaper to produce coco-methyl ester.
“As diesel pump prices continue to rise while coconut oil prices continue to drop, CME prices with all its unique features, is now on parity with diesel price,” said Rafael Diaz, executive director of the Asian Institute of Petroleum Studies Inc.
CME is made from coconut oil.
Diaz said weak demand for coconut oil coupled with a bumper harvest have pulled down copra and coconut oil prices.
“The Philippine coconut industry today is again facing production surplus affecting an industry where millions of Filipinos depend on. Excess production of coconut is again in our midst, but this time the country has a solution readily in place – coco biodiesel,” he said.
He said raising the CME blend in diesel from 2 percent or B2 to 5 percent or B5 would use up an additional 211.5 million liters of coconut oil a year, thus reducing the surplus in the market.
According to the Department of Energy, B5 will require 352.5 million liters of CME, while B2, 141 million given an annual diesel volume of 7.07 billion liters.
Earlier, Department of Agriculture officials said the country has called on the National Biofuels Board to increase the blend to C5 given ample supply of coconut oil.
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