AFP. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva inaugurated the country’s first major biodiesel refinery last week.

The Soyminas plant will produce up to 3.2 million gallons (about 10,000 tonnes) of biodiesel per year.

“In the near future, petroleum will not be the reason for war, or for an oil-consuming country to invade an oil producer,” Lula said as he opened the Soyminas plant in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

”We are showing the world that it is possible to create a fuel from renewable resources,“ he said.

Brazil is the top global producer of ethanol (although the US is closing in fast). The country has the area to sustain major oilseed crops, and could become a global biodiesel powerhouse as well.

Brazil has enacted a law making B2 mandatory by 2008 and B5 by 2013.