The oil giant owns 50% of Tropical Bioenergia, a $1bn Brazilian sugar-cane ethanol production facility that began operating in 2008.
However, with sugar prices at an all-time high over the past year, 45% of the cane from its first full harvest has been processed into sugar.
When it bought into Tropical with local sugar-cane producers Maeda and Santelisa Vale (now controlled by Louis Dreyfus Commodities), BP was deemed the most aggressive oil company moving into the ethanol business in Brazil.
