On February, Brazil's state-controlled Petrobras will export its first 20,000-cubic-meter shipment of anhydrous alcohol to the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Petrobras informed in a press release that negotiations were concluded for implementing 10% ethanol addition to the gasoline sold in Nigeria, according to a proposal made by the Brazilian state-owned company and approved by the Nigerian government.
The Brazilian company will provide technical support to gasoline sales during the implementation of the program. The press release also states that the operation will be similar to the one carried out in 2005 and 2006, in partnership with the PDVSA company, from Venezuela.
Brazilian ethanol exports, which amounted to 2.6 billion liters in 2005, have been growing since 2002. The data appear in the final report of the Brazilian Agriculture for Energy Program, presented by the secretary of Production and Agro-Energy in the Ministry of Agriculture, Linneu Costa Lima, to representatives of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).
The Japanese intention to invest US$ 528.33 million (R$ 1.2 billion) in the Brazilian agro-energy program, which is geared to produce ethanol and biodiesel. reflects the trend indicated in the report on the growth in global demand for ethanol. In the 2004-2005 period, ethanol consumption rose from 3 billion liters to 6 billion liters.
Regarding biodiesel, derived from such oilseed plants as sunflowers, dendê palms, and pií±ons, the report notes that Brazil still lacks the necessary infrastructure to execute the process from the stage of crop production to the manufacture of biodiesel fuel.
According to the minister of Agriculture, Roberto Rodrigues, it is in Brazil's interest that other countries also consume and produce biofuels. "For the product to become a commodity, we need to have standards, guidelines, universal rules, and more countries that produce and consume it."