Palm | Kelapa Sawit

My colleague Sulok Tawie reports from Kuching, Sarawak.


SENARI Biofuels Sdn Bhd has launched Sarawak's first biodiesel plant at the Sejingkat Industrial Park, near Kuching. The RM80 million plant, which will have the capacity to produce 120,000 tonnes of methyl ester per year, is expected to be fully operational by March this year.

The plant components comprise product storage and feedstock pipelines from ASSAR Refinery to Senari Biofuels and connecting pipelines to the Senari Port.

Senari Biofuels chairman Datuk Abang Khalid Abang Marzuki said biodiesel from the plant will be distributed by petrol kiosks in southern Sarawak by the end of 2010. It will also be supplied to factories and power plants.

The biodiesel plant was launched by Sarawak chief minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud. ASSAR Senari Group chairman Tan Sri Bujang Mohammed Nor, meanwhile, said the ASSAR Senari Industrial Complex Dua facility in Tanjung Manis will be completed in 2011.

He said upon completion, people in the central Sarawak region will have access to biodiesel from the Senari Biodiesels plant, probably at the same price as the normal petroleum diesel in the market.