Nigeria to plant jatropha along 5,000km of NNPC pipelines

In Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company announced it will begin planting jatropha along its 5,000km of pipeline to produce biodiesel but the trees will also provide other ecosystem services such a serving as a windbreak and preventing erosion. The project is inline with the company’s wider biofuel strategy to produce fuel for blending domestically. Jatropha is NNPC’s second preferred energy crop, coming in behind oil palm. The company’s executive director for oil and gas said that biofuels such as jatropha biodiesel will help reduce the negative impact fossil fuel has on the environment.