Banking on biofuel
A range of companies have announced plans to become involved in the biofuels industry. Lotos, the second-biggest fuels producer in Poland, is going to invest at least zł.70 million, and Skotan and Alchemia, companies in which Roman Karkosik is a major shareholder, are going to follow suit. Rape producers are not looking a gift horse in the mouth, and as the best source for biofuels' raw material they stand to reap the rewards.
Lotos has been a bio-gasoline producer since 2001 and intends to start production of bio-diesel in the near future. In the second half of 2007 the company will begin the production of methyl esters, thanks to which 100,000 tonnes of bio-components will find their way onto the Polish market.
Skotan and Alchemia plan to work together on biofuel investments, but the companies' officials have refused to reveal any further details. Skotan is preparing a biofuels strategy and further details will be delivered to the public "in a few weeks."
Anticipating the market
"It doesn't surprise me that companies are aiming at biofuels. Western Europe's markets are in desperate need of bio-components. The legal aspect of the whole story is only a small addition here," says Remigiusz Sopel, an analyst for internet brokerage house IDM SA. "The real question is who is going to outpace the other competitors, because news of firms such as Skotan investing in biofuel are rather peculiar. It is like seeing a greengrocer offering financial services."
Analysts also underline that rape producers already have the technology and the know-how that others might lack to produce biofuels.
The Polish biofuels market appears very promising, and is probably worth billions of euro, but the legal aspect of the market is not nearly as clear-cut. In 2001, the Sejm passed a bill on biofuels that was put on hold by a veto from the then President Aleksander Kwaśniewski. He signed a third version of the bill but this was then blocked by the Constitutional Tribunal, so the whole process was started from scratch. According to Kazimierz Żmuda, from the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry, a new law should be passed by the end of March.
