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Agreement assures feedstocks for 550m litre Belarus ethanol plant

MINSK, 18 DECEMBER 2007 — The Government of Belarus and Greenfield Project Management signed an agreement setting out and governing contractual relations and mutual obligations between the Government of Belarus and the Irish company, aimed at bringing to fruition the latter’s plan for a 550 million litres per year ethanol plant in the CIS nation. Belarus Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky chaired the meeting and signing ceremony as Ivan Bambiza, Deputy Prime Minister with responsibility for Food and Agriculture, signed the Framework Agreement together with Greenfield chair Ann McClain. The Framework Agreement between Greenfield and Belarus includes the key area of supplies of feedstock. Various types of grain together with sugar beet are included, and the Government has undertaken to prepare a “comprehensive programme of cooperation” to develop supplies of these, including an initial target of growing an extra 500,000 tons of grain annually up to a total of 1.5 million tons extra grain for ethanol production. In addition, at least one million tons of sugar beet will be available. Greenfield has undertaken to investigate optimal ways in which this resource can be used to develop the ethanol project. The Framework Agreement also directs the parties to “ensure the use of arable lands in the regions affected by the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station” in the supply chain for the plant. Greenfield chair Ann McClain said: “Both we and the Government have from the outset seen the ethanol sector as an economically sustainable way of remediating and redeveloping the contaminated Chernobyl lands. "This agreement will give real impetus to this long-term humanitarian and social project on a firm basis of financial viability.” Ms McClain said that the agreement resolves a knotty problem for investors in the project, the assurance of stable supplies of feedstock in volatile market conditions. “In several instances recently, ethanol projects have been put on hold and even established plants have been shut down,” she said, “but the agreement we have signed today provides a hedge against that possibility for our plant at Mozyr. We will have assured supplies of varied feedstocks, and we will have assured and sustainable pricing. A win-win proposition “In addition, growing feedstocks on the Chernobyl lands is a win-win proposition for all parties: farmers will get a good price for grains which cannot be used in the food chain, ethanol production costs will be insulated from the spikes in world market prices for grain, and the cultivation and production process will remove radioactive isotopes from the soil faster than nuclear decay,” she emphasised. Recently-appointed CFO John Scott described the agreement as “the bedrock on which we can engineer the most effective and efficient financing for the project”. “My job has been made much easier,” he said. “Market conditions have been a little discouraging in recent months, but nailing down this agreement is the key to our progress on this. Assuring feedstock supplies and price stability is music to my ears. This allows me to model our business plans for years ahead. Greenfield’s investors will like this.” Ms McClain concluded her comments after the signing ceremony by saying: “You know, I want to emphasise that this is a seriously important project and that we are very, very serious about it. We've spent nearly five years on it. And we've spent nearly €8 million of our funds getting it to this point. We will see it through. We will be there to turn the first sod. We will be there to lay the foundation stone.” Greenfield’s CEO, Michael Rietveld, stressed his gratitude to the Prime Minister for driving the project ahead. “Without the commitment shown by Mr Sidorsky and the Council of Ministers, this project would not have reached this point. We now have assured feedstock supplies, fully-registered joint venture corporations, and solid legal and institutional support. We look forward to 2008 and building the refinery just as soon as we conclude the Environmental Impact Assessment and the FEED stage preliminaries.” More information: Basil Miller CCO tel +353 1 4433494 / +353 1 2877782 / cell +353 86 8182082 Photographs of directors and of the signing ceremony in Minsk are available here: http://greenfieldpartners.eu/presspack.htm or by request to Basil Miller: basil.miller@greenfieldpartners.eu

Date:  04.01.2008
Источник:  http://biobasednews.com/list2.php?storyid=16266

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