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Brazil to help India, South Africa make ethanol
AFP
BRASILIA
Petroleumworld.com 09 13 06
Brazil will help India and South Africa produce ethanol to cut dependence on oil, Brazil's trade minister announced Tuesday on the eve of a trilateral business summit.
"India and South Africa have the land and weather for sugar cane," Brazil's crop of choice for distilling ethanol, Minister of Industry and Commerce Luiz Fernando Furlan said.
On Wednesday President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will host a summit for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.
South Africa is a large importer of crude, and India imports 40 billion dollars' worth of oil annually.
"Indian companies from both public and private sector have evinced interest in exploring production opportunities in Brazil to meet the anticipated growth in ethanol use in India for both industrial as well as automobile use," Singh said.
Lula said that Brazil wished to create an international biofuels forum and to "work with the government of India in search of sustainable energy alternatives".
The meeting Wednesday will be the first summit of the India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum, created in 2003 to promote the interests of the three large emerging economies.
IBSA seeks to "unite these three great developing democracies behind a common vision on important matters on international agenda," Brazil's foreign ministry said.
Brazil is the largest producer and exporter of ethanol fuel, which may be used by 80 percent of new cars sold here.
For three years, the use of flex-fuel technology has allowed automobiles use gasoline, ethanol or a mixture of the two.
Two million Brazilian cars use the new technology, and plans are to increase that number to five million by 2008.
Ethanol meets 17 percent of Brazil's fuel needs. Brazil produces 16 billion liters (4.2 billion gallons) annually, of which three billion liters (790 million gallons) are exported, according to official statistics.
AFP 12 2109 GMT 09 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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