Big oil vs farm majors: Ethanol tussle is heading to Asia
One of the booths at Asia’s biggest oil shindig this week was occupied by the American agricultural industry.
Pummelled by the trade war with China, U.S. farm companies are scouring the world for additional sources of demand. That means for instance that crop handler The Andersons Inc. has now decided to compete with the likes of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc for a slice of the global fuel market.
Were moving away from ethanol being seen as an agricultural product and moving toward it being an energy product and gasoline component, James Pirolli, president of the company’s ethanol business, said in an interview at the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference. The company is seeking to boost sales to Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam, which both rely on overseas fuel supplies, he said in Singapore.
