Saudi Arabia moves into biofuels

Nature Biotechnology, August 2005

PETER J. VERMIJ

D1 Oils, a London-based company betting on the worldwide, large-scale cultivation and processing of Jatropha curcas plants for the production of biofuels, announced on May 31 the second placing of shares worth £24 ($44) million at the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.

The company announced new deals significantly expanding earlier ones in China and Saudi Arabia. In China, the company entered a 50 year joint venture with Chengdu-based Sichuan Yangtze River Technology with the aim of harvesting 500,000 tons of oil per year from up to 2 million hectares of land. In Saudi Arabia, D1 Oils agreed with Riyadh-based Abdullatef Al-Rajhi International Group to develop sewerage water treatment facilities for the irrigation of up to 300,000 hectares of desert land. In February, the company had already secured 100,000 hectares through a deal with Jazeera for Modern Technology, also based in Riyadh. Biofuel irrigation is an effective way for Saudi Arabia to get rid of oversupplies of waste water while creating fertile land, says D1’s founding director Mark Quinn, citing ground water floods in Jeddah to illustrate the problem. Also, by signing the Kyoto Protocol, Saudi Arabia has committed to lowering its net emissions. D1 Oils went public in October 2004, when it raised £11.5 ($21) million.

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