http://money.guardian.co.uk/businessnews/story/0,,-2115154,00.html

Marianne Barriaux
Friday June 29, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

BP has set up a venture with biodiesel firm D1 Oils to increase
planting of jatropha, an oilseed tree that produces an inedible
vegetable oil used to make biofuel.
This is the second such deal that BP has signed within days. On
Tuesday, it joined forces with Associated British Foods to build a
£200m biofuels plant in Hull.

BP will put in an initial £31.75m, while D1 will incorporate its
planting business and the trees it has planted to date. The venture
requires £80m in funding over five years, and the rest of the money
will be put in on a 50-50 basis.

News of the link came as Grain, a charity that promotes the
sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity, warned
that the stampede into biofuels was "causing enormous environmental
and social damage".

Their report said hundreds of thousands of indigenous people and
peasant communities in developing countries were being thrown off
their land as biofuel firms needed more and more space for their
crops.

Elliott Mannis, chief executive of D1 Oils, said the report did not
apply to jatropha, as it grows on land that is unsuitable for arable
crops.

Philip New, head of BP Biofuels, added: "As jatropha can be grown on
land of lesser agricultural value with lower irrigation requirements
than many plants, it is an excellent biodiesel feedstock."

BP and D1 want to plant one million hectares over four years. D1 has
a presence in India, southern Africa, and south-east Asia, including
China. Mr Mannis said it was thinking of expanding to South America,
and possibly Australia.

D1 will keep the plant science, as well as its refinery and trading
activities. The joint venture will plant the trees, harvest the
seeds and extract the oil. D1 and BP will share the crude oil and
sell it.