Çukurova Grubu’un patronu Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, iş dünyasındaki potansiyel fırsatları önceden keşfetmesiyle tanınıyor. Turkcell ile Türkiye’nin ilk GSM operatörünü kuran Karamehmet, günümüzde ise Kuzey Irak’ta petrol çıkarmaya başlayan Genel Enerji’ye yaptığı yatırımların meyvesini topluyor. 2003 yılına Kuzey Irak’taki fırsatları gören Karamehmet son 6 yılda 350 milyon dolar yatırım yaptı. Genel Enerji‘nin İngiliz Heritage Oil ile birleşmesi durumunda is Karamahmet dünyanın en büyük 17′inci petrol şirketinin oratğı olacak.
Dünyanın en büyük 3 petrol üreticisi MobilExxon, Royal Dutch Shell ve BP ise şimdiden yeşil deniz yosunlarından yakıt üretmek için yatırımlara başladı. Son olarak MobilExxon, yosundan yakıt üretimi için 600 milyon dolar bütçe ayırdığını duyurdu. Synthetic Genomics ile anlaşma imzalayan MobilExxon yosundan yakıt üretimini şu nedenlerden tercih etti: “Yosun, şu anda faaliyette olan rafireri tesisilerinde işlemden geçirilebiliyor. Ayrıca günümüzde kullanılmakta olan araçların motorlarında herhangi bir modifikasyon yapılmadan kullanılabiliyor.”
ORİJİNAL METİN:
Oil giant Exxon sees the future – and it is green algae
The oil giant that environmentalists love to hate, ExxonMobil, which for years denied the existence of man-made climate change, is sensationally “going green” in a very literal sense – investing $600m (£369m) in algae.
The company says it believes it can make a new kind of fuel for cars and aircraft, one that can be produced in its existing refineries and will not require modification of vehicles’ engines.
At the heart of the project is Craig Venter, the scientist best known for his private-sector effort to sequence the human genome, and his latest company, Synthetic Genomics.
Exxon is putting $300m into its own research and at least as much again into Synthetic Genomic’s efforts to build a lab and, ultimately, large-scale production facilities. Both sides were enthusiastic but cautious announcing the partnership yesterday. “We need to be realistic,” said Emil Jacobs, vice-president of research at Exxon. “This is not going to be easy, and there are no guarantees of success.”
Spending on the algae fuels project will require only a fraction of Exxon’s annual capital budgets of $25bn to $30bn, but it will be the world’s largest biofuels development project of its kind, Mr Venter said.
Environmentalists are keen on algae as a fuel source because, unlike many ethanol products, it is not taking up land, water and crops that might otherwise be given over to the production of food.
ExxonMobil has come under pressure from shareholders – including descendants of its founder, John D Rockefeller – to diversify from fossil fuels, though management insists oil and gas will continue to be the dominant sources of fuel for decades to come.
BP already has a partnership with Synthetic Genomics. Royal Dutch Shell, which is second to ExxonMobil in global refining capacity, announced plans in December for an algae project in Hawaii.
Kaynak: The Independent
