A Chinese company, ZTE International, is to invest US$1 billion in a 3 million hectare oil palm plantation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to produce biofuels.
The vast Central-African country is a potential bioenergy 'superpower' which could supply a large part of the world's fuel needs. But it faces some hard choices. Congo is home to the world's second largest undisturbed tropical rainforest, an invaluable hotspot of biodiversity and carbon sink that is increasingly under pressure from illegal logging operations. A rush into the biofuel sector could threaten these ecosystems further.
The Congolese are beginning to understand the world-changing prospect that in a post-oil era, their country, together with Brazil, will largely determine the energy security of the world. The DRC's new government has just recently established an interministerial commission on biofuels to assess the complex opportunities and the many risks of this future.
The country has Africa's largest base of potential arable land, some 167 million hectares of non-forest land (roughly as much as all countries of Western Europe combined), it has the world's largest expanse of highly agro-ecologically suitable land for crops like sugarcane and oil palm, besides having a vast potential for most other tropical energy crops such as soybeans, sorghum, cassava, grasses and energy trees. Currently, the country has around 4.7% of its arable land under cultivation
The Chinese project will be implemented in the Equateur and Bandundu provinces, in the Province Orientale and in part of West-Kasaï.
The Chinese company will first satisfy local demand for oil palm. Despite its vast potential, Congo currently imports 15,000 tonnes per year, mainly due to the breakdown of logistical chains that are supposed to bring the product from the hinterland to the capital. Current oil palm production stands at around 240,000 tonnes, with demand expected to grow to 465,000 tonnes in 2010 and 540,000 tonnes in 2015.
When the palms for the 3 million hectares are planted this and next year, and reach full maturity 5 years later (in 2013) the plantations would yield around 12 million tonnes of oil (at 4 tonnes per hectare), easily meeting local demand. The excess of around 11.5 million tonnes would be used for the production of biofuels,or for human consumption, depending on the market situation and the reality of peak oil, which should become apparent by that time.
full article at Biopact...
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