How Royal Dutch Shell Intends To Boost Ethanol Production In Brazil

Bidness Etc looks at the progress Shell is making in the joint-venture with with Cosan Limited to boost ethanol production in Brazil over the next ten years

By: MICHEAL KAUFMAN
Published: Dec 30, 2014 at 7:19 am EST

The joint-venture between Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A) and Cosan Limited(USA) (NYSE:CZZ), called Raizen, plans to spend nearly $1 billion on building ethanol production facilities to increase its biofuel output by 50%, according to the Financial Times (FT).

Cosan Limited intends to build eight ethanol plants over the next ten years, for an estimated cost of $930 million (2.5 billion reais). The plants will produce cellulosic ethanol fuel using sugarcane waste as its primary raw material, the most efficient source of biofuel. The first of eight plants was completed last week, and has an annual capacity of 40 million liters. After the completion of all plants, the company expects biofuel output to increase 50%. read more

13 June 2012

A biofuels company set up by Shell in Brazil has scrapped controversial plans to source sugar cane from land stolen from an indigenous tribe after a vociferous campaign by the Indians and Survival International.

The company, Raizen, was established in 2010 as a joint venture of Shell and Brazilian ethanol giant Cosan to produce biofuel from sugar cane.

But some of its sugar cane is grown on land claimed by the Guarani tribe, one of the most persecuted and impoverished in South America. Their leaders are regularly killed by gunmen acting for the sugar cane growers and cattle ranchers who have taken over almost all their land. read more

FEBRUARY 06, 2012

By Isis Almeida

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) — Raizen, a joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Cosan Industria & Comercio SA in Brazil, will process 9 percent more sugar cane in the season starting in April than a year earlier, commercial director Ivan Melo said.

Raizen’s cane processing in the 2012-13 season will be 57.6 million metric tons, with sugar output up about 15 percent to 4.3 million tons and ethanol supply about 10 percent higher at 2.4 billion liters (634 million gallons), Melo said in an interview at the Kingsman conference in Dubai today. Sweetener content will also rise, he said. read more

By Arnaldo Galvao and Lucia Kassai – Dec 15, 2011 4:38 PM GMT

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Cosan Industria & Comercio SA’s joint venture in Brazil has reached a preliminary accord to sell its jet-fuel unit to BP Plc, the nation’s antitrust regulator said today.

The venture, called Raizen, was granted an additional five days to present the agreement to the regulator before being fined, Olavo Chinaglia, interim president of the agency, said at a meeting in Brasilia today. Cade, as the regulator is known, ordered the sale after Shell and Cosan combined some assets in Brazil, including service stations and the jet-fuel unit that Cosan had bought from Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) read more

By John Donovan

In the years immediately prior to WW2, Royal Dutch Shell was a business partner both Internationally and in Germany with IG Farben, the notorious German chemical firm, supplier of Zyklon-B gas to the Nazi death camps.

IG Farben used slave labor.

Extract from Time Magazine article 12 May 1947: Most damning charge was that Farben experimented on slave labor and concentration camp inmates with “deadly gases, vaccines and related products.” To supply slave labor for its synthetic rubber plant at Oswiecim, Farben allegedly constructed a concentration camp and worked the men, women & children so hard that an estimated 100 a day died from exhaustion. The U.S. would have no trouble proving that the Nazis could not have made war without Farben. read more

In a 2009 report on Brazil, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, mister James Anaya, wrote that Mato Grosso do Sul “has the highest rate of indigenous children’s death due to precarious conditions of health and access to water and food, related to lack of lands.”

From pages 22, 23 & 24 of “Royal Dutch Shell and its sustainability troubles” – Background report to the Erratum of Shell’s Annual Report 2010

The report is made on behalf of Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands)
Author: Albert ten Kate: May 2011.

Joint venture with Brazil’s largest sugar and ethanol producer

On 25 August 2010, Royal Dutch Shell and the Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer Cosan S.A. have signed binding agreements to form a joint venture in Brazil. The definite formation of the joint venture is expected to occur in the first half of 2011. The name of the joint venture will be Rai?zen. “Due to the size of its operations, Rai?zen will help sugarcane ethanol, a sustainable, clean and renewable source of energy, to consolidate itself worldwide and strengthen Brazil‘s position in the international biofuels trading business,” stated its appointed Chief Executive Officer, Vasco Dias. read more

Energy giant Shell’s joint venture partner, Cosan, is buying sugarcane grown on Guarani land. © João Ripper/Survival

A Brazilian rancher supplying sugarcane to a joint venture partner of energy giant Shell has reportedly issued a death threat against a political opponent.?? José Teixeira, who is also a state deputy, is said to have recently warned a political rival that, ‘If it were up to me, you’d be under the ground.’

Teixeira is renting out part of his ranch for sugarcane production, even though the Government has confirmed that the land belongs to Guarani Indians.

Shell and Brazilian ethanol company Cosan are now united in a $12 billion joint venture company called Raizen, to produce ethanol to sell as a biofuel. Cosan is buying sugarcane grown on Guarani land that Teixeira continues to occupy. Survival has urged Shell and Cosan to stop using sugarcane grown on the Guarani’s land, but the companies continue to use it. read more

Published on 15 February 2011

Royal Dutch Shell and Brazilian sugar company Cosan have presented plans for a joint venture to produce ethanol or alcohol fuel. It is estimated that the resulting company will have a market value of over eight billion euros.

A statement from Cosan said the new organisation would be called Raizen. It will employ about 40,000 people and produce over 2.2 billion litres of ethanol per year for the Brazilian and international markets.

Ethanol is made from sugar cane and used to fuel cars, producing hardly any CO2 in exhaust fumes. Many cars in Brazil already run on the fuel. Ethanol has been added to fuel in the Netherlands since 2007. read more

POSTING BY AN OUTSPOKEN FORMER EMPLOYEE OF SHELL OIL USA

John,

I recently read about Royal Dutch Shell and Cosan forming a jointly owned corporation to produce ethanol in Brazil. We all know how Shell treats the Nigerians, and how they have treated the Brazilians from previous revelations about their ‘drins’ production facilities.

Now RD Shell appears to be sleeping with the devil again. Cosan is a corporation that allegedly has a nasty reputation for engaging in human slavery to cut ethanol and sugar production costs. Apparently, RD Shell management’s lust for profits know no bounds (see attached links). read more

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell and Brazilian sugar-production group Cosan said Monday they were forming one of the biggest joint ethanol fuel ventures in the world, with an estimated market value of $12 billion. The new entity, to be called Raizen, will employ around 40,000 people and produce over 2.2 billion liters (580 million gallons) of ethanol per year to Brazilian and international markets, the two companies said in a statement.

REUTERS

SAO PAULO | Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:59am EDT

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell and Brazilian sugar and ethanol giant Cosan signed on Wednesday a binding agreement to create a global ethanol business, looking to benefit from growing demand for biofuels.

The joint venture, with estimated annual sales of $21 billion, was modified since its initial announcement in February to include all of Cosan’s energy generation business and 500 million reais ($283.6 million) in debt owed to Brazilian development bank BNDES.

Cosan, the world’s largest sugar and ethanol producer, also said in a securities filing that the initial accord was changed to make the venture a global biofuels provider. As a result of that, Cosan and Shell are barred from competing with the new entity. read more