Total starts output at French biofuel refinery

PARIS, July 03 (AFP): Total on Wednesday said it had begun producing biofuel at a refinery in southern France, a project that has sparked an outcry from environmentalists and farmers over its plans to import palm oil.

The site at La Mede near Marseille is a former oil refinery which has been converted and is now one of the largest biorefineries in Europe.

Situated on the shore of the Berre reservoir, the facility has an annual production capacity of 500,000 tonnes of biodiesel, which includes biojet fuel for the aviation industry, the oil and gas giant said on Wednesday.

Now the biggest such facility in France, it ranks alongside large biofuel refineries run by Italy's Eni and Neste Oil of Finland.

Biofuels are produced directly or indirectly from plant-based materials like vegetable oil or palm oil, which environmental activists blame for causing massive deforestation, chiefly in southeast Asia.

Total has said it wants to import up to 300,000 tonnes of palm oil a year.