Russia's LUKoil, Pennsylvania ethanol deal.....

[Gloria]

If we had a real energy policy, perhaps the Russians wouldn't be the ones helping to finance this plant....and they've owned gas stations all over the place since 2004, too!

2//RIA Novosti (Russian News and Information Agency), Russia 15:40 24/08/2006

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060824/53092064.html



RUSSIA’S LUKoil, U.D. BIOENERGY TO BUILD ETHANOL PLANT IN 2007



MOSCOW, August 24 (RIA Novosti) - Lukoil Americas, a subsidiary of Russian oil giant LUKoil (RTS: LKON), will start building an ethanol plant in Pennsylvania in the first quarter of 2007, jointly with Massachusetts-based BioEnergy International, the biotechnology company said Thursday.



The dry-mill ethanol plant in the northeast of the United States will have a capacity of 108 million gallons per year (409,000 cubic meters). During the first stage of the project, ethanol will be produced using corn as raw material, and subsequently using bio-waste. Ethanol production is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2008.



Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell said the project will receive $17.4 million in government investment.



Lukoil Americas has agreed to buy all of the plant's output, and will market gasoline blended with ethanol throughout its marketing network, which covers the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S., the BioEnergy news release said.



(SNIP)



LUKoil owns 779 filling stations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which it bought in late spring 2004 from Conoco through its 100%-owned subsidiary Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc.