Oil & ethanol: New partners?

ArgusLeader.com
Peter Harriman • pharrima@argusleader.com • December 21, 2008

Former rivals now make good business team, some experts say

Renewable fuel producers and big oil companies might appear to be natural enemies, but the development of ethanol has moved the two industries inexorably closer in recent years.

Once combatants, oil companies and ethanol producers now are forging partnerships, the result of federal regulations and economic reality. Such partnerships could aid struggling ethanol producers and give oil companies a leg up in a fledgling industry. And an oil company could be South Dakota ethanol giant VeraSun's ticket out of bankruptcy.

Marathon Oil, one of the largest U.S. oil companies, early last year entered into a partnership with The Andersons Inc., an ethanol refiner with a plant in Ohio and another in Indiana.

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