Mar 31 2008
Gulf Ethanol Corporation, met last week with government officials, investors and industry partners in Central America to discuss plans to manufacture biofuels in Central America. Central America has abundant sources of biomass. Negotiations identified a strong demand for biodiesel production in Costa Rica along with available, low cost, feedstock to produce it.
“We see this opportunity as a healthy expansion of our business model to a second biofuel,” noted JT Cloud, Gulf’s President. “We expect to formalize implementation plans in the next couple of weeks and be in production before the end of 2008,” he predicted.
With hardly any domestic hydrocarbon reserves, Central American countries rely heavily on imported oil for their energy needs. The countries of Central America, including Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama, have traditionally been dependent upon agricultural exports for a large portion of their economic activity. However, in recent years, these countries have begun to diversify their economies towards manufacturing and tourism. As a result, the countries have been especially affected by high world oil prices in recent years.