In Riberolles (Cepsa) warns of the lack of competitiveness of many biodiesel plants

Cepsa CEO Dominique de Riberolles, has warned of "oversupply" and excess biodiesel production in Spain, where also many "plants" that are not competitive.

In Riberolles made this account yesterday during the closing ceremony of the conference on biofuels in Spain, in the School of Mining Engineers of Madrid.

He said at the end of 2009 biodiesel production capacity in Spain was 4.3 million tonnes spread over 53 floors, while the needs for the period 2011-2013 are around two million tonnes annually.

This "excess capacity", he said, "compounded" by the small size of many plants and their location in the interior. The facilities are so "unfortunate in a country that depends mainly on imported raw materials," so that "many of these plants are not competitive," he said.

On the other hand, De Riberolles argued against that in Spain there is a minimum target of ethanol in gasoline and argued that each country is free to choose the most suitable biofuel to meet the overall objectives of the mixture.

In fact, Spain has a "strong diesel fuel" of the fleet and therefore diesel imports in 2009 were about 11.4 million tonnes, he said. In this sense, the incorporation of biodiesel is "positive" because it "reduces the deficit of diesel in the country," he said.

With gasoline opposite is true. Its consumption has fallen in the past three years at rates higher than 5% and Spain has become an exporter of this product, with 3.8 million tonnes.

For this reason, "the addition of ethanol to gasoline has resulted in an undesirable increase of such stocks of gasoline, not contributing, therefore, to reduced dependence on oil," De Riberolles.

TRANSPORT SECTOR.

On the other hand, the manager referred to the characteristics of the transport sector and the difficulties in meeting the objectives of reducing emissions.

These difficulties include the inability to apply the techniques of capture and sequestration of CO2 in this sector, as well as the time required, 10 and 20 years, to renew the vehicle fleet.

ALL SOURCES.

De Riberolles also said that "all energy sources are needed, without excluding any," and that "energy plan must strike a balance between them, according to the above criteria of security of supply, competitiveness and economic and environmental sustainability."

In any case, the manager cited energy efficiency as the "best option", and warned that conventional energy will continue to have "considerable weight." Meanwhile, "the great challenge of renewable energy is to achieve greater efficiency and economic rationality and a better balance cost and benefit," he said.