March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Oil prices are “unlikely to weaken,” helping to support demand for alternative fuels, according to the former chief executive officer of BP Plc.
Oil “may firm over the medium to long term,” said John Browne, now a London-based managing director of buyout company Riverstone Holdings LLC. “Biofuels have the potential to play a critical long-term role in the global energy mix,” he said today at a World Biofuels Markets conference in Brussels.
The U.S. and Europe encouraged the development of fuels made from crops such as corn and soybeans to limit their dependence on oil imports as prices climbed to a record. Crude has risen 4.9 percent this year, after plunging 54 percent last year. Ethanol futures traded in Chicago fell 3.2 percent this year.
“My sense is the biofuels industry has not put its best foot forward in recent months. There’s been a tendency for the industry to fragment,” Browne said.
A European Union mandate requiring that biofuels power at least 10 percent of road transportation in each member country by 2020 may result in 120,000 jobs, he said.
“These are the important messages in which our industry should be communicating.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Claudia Carpenter in Brussels at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 17, 2009 06:32 EDT
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