News

March 26, 2009

Is Biodiesel Feedstock Producer D1 Oils Ready For A Comeback After Severe Reverses in 2007 And 2008?

By Stewart Dalby

We wrote recently about Alkane Energy, which came to the London AIM market in the early 2000s with a good alternative energy idea. It was going to roll out a number of coal mine methane (CMM) plants on top of abandoned coal mines and push out gas for industrial and domestic use which was produced in a way which was also environmentally beneficial.

Within three years, the five plants in the UK had to be mothballed partly through technical problems but largely because of poor prices for gas. The company fell into loss. However, Alkane came back from the dead. It recently reported pre-tax profits for 2008 of over £1 million from turnover of over £5 million.

D1 Oils is a similar but different story. It came to AIM market in October 2004 raising £11.5 million. There was a second round of fund raising in June 2005 bringing in £26 million. The...