Exxon investing $600 million in alternative energy (did I wake up in a parallel universe)

[Statistical]

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Exxon Mobil said Tuesday it'll launch a new algae-based biofuels program valued at up to $600 million in the oil major's biggest move so far into alternative energy as a hedge against challenges facing the fossil-fuel business.

Exxon Mobil /quotes/comstock/13*!xom/quotes/nls/xom (XOM 65.97, +0.27, +0.41%) formed a research-and-development alliance with La Jolla, Calif.,-based Synthetic Genomics for next-generation biofuels from photosynthetic algae.

The oil major joins a list of big names associated with the research firm founded by J. Craig Venter and Nobel Laureate Hamilton O. Smith including BP plc /quotes/comstock/13*!bp/quotes/nls/bp (BP 46.70, +0.50, +1.08%) , Biotechonomy LLC, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Plenus, S.A. de C.V.

If milestones are successfully met, Exxon Mobil expects to spend more than $600 million, which includes $300 million in internal costs and potentially more than $300 million to Synthetic Genomics.

"After considerable study, we have determined that the potential advantages and benefits of biofuel from algae could be significant," said Emil Jacobs, vice president of research and development at Exxon Mobil Research and Engineering Company.

While the $600 million for the program amounts to a tiny fraction of Exxon Mobil's record $45 billion profit last year, it outstrips the price tags from others in the fossil-fuel business venturing into biofuels recently.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/exxon-mobil-lays-out-600-million-for-algae-fuels


Weird & maybe a very good thing.

1) I always believed corn based ethanol was a joke and a dead end. Burning food generally is a bad idea.
2) Corn takes a lot of resources to grow. Even sugar cane is 3x as efficient as corn based ethanol.
3) Exxon has always been the most conservative of all the oil companies. They watched the others burn huge amounts of money of unprofitable "green" ventures. For Exxon to jump in and jump in big indicates they saw something that makes them think fuel from algae is both profitable and scalable.

[hobbit709]

1. And of course they want to control the supply for more immense profit.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

Algae from water treatment plants always seemed like a no-brainer to me.

:think:

[scheming daemons]

2. It's called jumping ahead of the bandwagon

Exxon wants to still be in business a couple decades from now when the world has transitioned off of fossil fuels.

It's good business.


The same reason that Microsoft at first fought against the World Wide Web... but then created Internet Explorer.

[lunatica]

3. I saw a program on the science channel showing algae fuel is much better than corn fuel

The advantages so far are very good. It would free up more land for other crops as well as allow natural forests to re-grow and some research shows the fuel, or oil, in algae can be extracted without killing the plant, making renewable a key component.

http://www.greenchipstocks.com/aqx_p/8039?gclid=CPba0Lum1ZsCFSgYagodt2NwLA

(snip)
Research at leading universities suggests that algae could supply enough fuel to meet all of America's transportation needs in the form of biodiesel... using a scant 0.2% of the nation's land.

In fact, enough algae can be grown to replace all transportation fuels in the U.S. on only 15,000 square miles, or 4.5 million acres of land.

That's about the size of Maryland.

How is this all possible?

Technology exists right now to cultivate algae that can be used as fuel, using human and animal waste as fertilizer.

more...

[Bandit]

4. Six hundred million..WOW..five days Net Profit for them

They really are going for it aren't they? :sarcasm:

[cbdo2007]

5. Sounds like a $600 Million govt payoff

The cops will let you do whatever you want as long as they're getting some scratch on the side.