Central Asia s Vast Biofuel Opportunity

<br>The recent discoveries of a International Energy Administration whistleblower that the IEA might have distorted key oil [https://www.zonebourse.com/cours/action/MISSION-NEWENERGY-LIMITED-8557641/ forecasts] under extreme U.S. pressure is, if true (and whistleblowers seldom step forward to advance their careers), a slow-burning atomic surge on future international oil production. The Bush administration's actions in pressuring the IEA to [https://forest500.org/rankings/companies/mission-newenergy-limited underplay] the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves have the potential to [https://www.energy-xprt.com/companies/mission-newenergy-limited-36048 throw governments'] long-lasting preparation into chaos.<br><br><br>Whatever the truth, increasing long term global demands appear specific to overtake production in the next years, specifically given the high and increasing expenses of developing new super-fields such as Kazakhstan's overseas Kashagan and Brazil's southern Atlantic Jupiter and Carioca fields, which will need billions in financial investments before their first barrels of oil are produced.<br><br><br>In such a scenario, additives and replacements such as biofuels will play an ever-increasing function by extending beleaguered production quotas. As market forces and increasing costs drive this technology to the leading edge, among the wealthiest prospective production areas has actually been completely neglected by financiers already [https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1463471/000165495419013063/R31.htm - Central] Asia. Formerly the USSR's cotton "plantation," the region is poised to end up being a significant player in the production of biofuels if adequate foreign financial investment can be obtained. Unlike Brazil, where biofuel is made mainly from sugarcane, or the United States, where it is mostly distilled from corn, Central Asia's ace resource is an indigenous plant, Camelina sativa.<br><br><br>Of the previous Soviet Caucasian and Central Asian republics, those clustered around the shores of the Caspian, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have seen their economies boom because of record-high energy costs, while Turkmenistan is waiting in the wings as a rising manufacturer of gas.<br><br><br>Farther to the east, in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, geographical isolation and reasonably scant hydrocarbon resources relative to their Western Caspian next-door neighbors have actually mainly hindered their capability to capitalize rising global energy needs up to now. Mountainous Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan stay mostly dependent for their electrical requirements on their Soviet-era hydroelectric facilities, but their increased requirement to generate winter season electrical power has actually led to autumnal and winter season water discharges, in turn severely impacting the agriculture of their western downstream next-door neighbors Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.<br><br><br>What these 3 downstream countries do have however is a Soviet-era tradition of agricultural production, which in Uzbekistan's and Turkmenistan case was largely directed towards cotton production, while Kazakhstan, beginning in the 1950s with Khrushchev's "Virgin Lands" programs, has actually become a significant producer of wheat. Based on my discussions with Central Asian government authorities, given the thirsty needs of cotton monoculture, foreign propositions to [https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/51278-86 diversify] agrarian production towards [https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/mission-newenergy biofuel] would have excellent appeal in Astana, Ashgabat and Tashkent and to a lower level Astana for those durable investors going to bank on the future, specifically as a plant native to the region has actually currently shown itself in trials.<br><br><br>Known in the West as incorrect flax, wild flax, linseed dodder, German sesame and Siberian oilseed, camelina is bring in increased clinical interest for its oleaginous qualities, with a number of European and American business already examining how to produce it in commercial quantities for [https://stocktwits.com/symbol/MNEL biofuel]. In January Japan Airlines undertook a historic test flight utilizing camelina-based bio-jet fuel, becoming the very first [https://forest500.org/rankings/companies/mission-newenergy-limited Asian carrier] to explore flying on fuel derived from sustainable feedstocks throughout a one-hour presentation flight from Tokyo's Haneda Airport. The test was the conclusion of a 12-month evaluation of camelina's operational performance capability and possible industrial viability.<br><br><br>As an alternative energy source, camelina has much to advise it. It has a high oil material low in saturated fat. In contrast to Central Asia's thirsty "king cotton," camelina is drought-resistant and unsusceptible to spring freezing, requires less fertilizer and herbicides, and can be utilized as a rotation crop with wheat, which would make it of specific interest in Kazakhstan, now Central Asia's significant wheat exporter. Another bonus offer of camelina is its tolerance of poorer, less fertile conditions. An acre sown with camelina can produce as much as 100 gallons of oil and when [https://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/ASX:MBT/Mission-NewEnergy-Ltd planted] in rotation with wheat, camelina can increase wheat production by 15 percent. A ton (1000 kg) of camelina will include 350 kg of oil, of which pushing can extract 250 kg. Nothing in camelina production is lost as after processing, the plant's particles can be used for animals silage. Camelina silage has a particularly attractive concentration of omega-3 fatty acids that make it a particularly great livestock feed candidate that is recently gaining acknowledgment in the U.S. and Canada. Camelina is quick growing, produces its own natural herbicide (allelopathy) and competes well versus weeds when an even crop is established. According to Britain's Bangor University's Centre for Alternative Land Use, "Camelina could be a perfect low-input crop suitable for bio-diesel production, due to its lower requirements for nitrogen fertilizer than oilseed rape."<br><br><br>Camelina, a branch of the mustard family, is indigenous to both Europe and Central Asia and barely a new crop on the scene: historical evidence suggests it has actually been cultivated in Europe for a minimum of three millennia to produce both grease and animal fodder.<br><br><br>Field trials of production in Montana, currently the center of U.S. camelina research, revealed a [https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/ipos/overview?dealId=804419-65608 wide variety] of results of 330-1,700 lbs of seed per acre, with oil material differing between 29 and 40%. Optimal seeding rates have actually been identified to be in the 6-8 lb per acre range, as the seeds' small size of 400,000 seeds per lb can develop problems in germination to achieve an [https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/51278-86 optimal] plant [https://www.pinterest.com.au/missionnewenergy/ density] of around 9 plants per sq. ft.<br><br><br>Camelina's capacity might permit [https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/MISSION-NEWENERGY-LIMITED-178469/company/ Uzbekistan] to begin breaking out of its most dolorous legacy, the  of a cotton monoculture that has warped the country's efforts at agrarian reform since [https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/m/0cqd_rb attaining independence] in 1991. Beginning in the late 19th century, the Russian federal government identified that Central Asia would become its cotton plantation to feed Moscow's growing textile market. The [https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/51278-86 process] was sped up under the Soviets. While Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were also bought by Moscow to plant cotton, Uzbekistan in particular was singled out to produce "white gold."<br><br><br>By the end of the 1930s the Soviet Union had actually ended up being self-dependent in cotton; 5 years later it had become a major exporter of cotton, producing more than one-fifth of the world's production, concentrated in Uzbekistan, which produced 70 percent of the Soviet Union's output.<br><br><br>Try as it may to diversify, in the absence of options Tashkent remains wedded to cotton, producing about 3.6 million tons every year, which generates more than $1 billion while constituting around 60 percent of the country's hard currency income.<br><br><br>Beginning in the mid-1960s the Soviet federal government's regulations for Central Asian cotton production mainly bankrupted the region's scarcest resource, water. Cotton utilizes about 3.5 acre feet of water per acre of plants, leading Soviet planners to divert ever-increasing volumes of water from the region's 2 main rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, into inefficient watering canals, resulting in the dramatic shrinking of the rivers' last location, the Aral Sea. The Aral, once the world's fourth-largest inland sea with an area of 26,000 square miles, has shrunk to one-quarter its original size in one of the 20th century's worst eco-friendly disasters.<br><br><br>And now, the dollars and cents. Dr. Bill Schillinger at Washington State [https://www.zoominfo.com/c/mission-newenergy/346542889 University] just recently described camelina's company design to Capital Press as: "At 1,400 pounds per acre at 16 cents a pound, camelina would bring in $224 per acre; 28-bushel white wheat at $8.23 per bushel would garner $230."<br><br><br>Central Asia has the land, the farms, the irrigation facilities and a modest wage scale in comparison to America or Europe - all that's missing out on is the foreign investment. U.S. financiers have the money and access to the know-how of [https://www.investing.com/equities/mission-newenergy-ltd-company-profile America's land] grant universities. What is particular is that [https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1463471/000165495419013063/R31.htm biofuel]'s market share will grow over time; less certain is who will profit of developing it as a practical issue in Central Asia.<br><br><br>If the recent past is anything to go by it is unlikely to be American and European financiers, focused as they are on Caspian oil and gas.<br><br><br>But while the Japanese flight [https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/m/0cqd_rb experiments] show Asian interest, American investors have the academic know-how, if they want to follow the Silk Road into establishing a new market. Certainly anything that lessens water usage and pesticides, diversifies crop production and improves the lot of their agrarian population will get most careful [https://www.energy-xprt.com/companies/mission-newenergy-limited-36048 consideration] from Central Asia's governments, and farming and grease processing plants are not just more affordable than pipelines, they can be constructed quicker.<br><br><br>And [https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/159346/mission-newenergy-delivers-maiden-biodiesel-production-to-global-oil-major-24476.html jatropha curcas]'s biofuel potential? Another story for another time.<br>