Saras to start up biodiesel plant in Spain in Dec

MILAN Nov 24 (Reuters) - Italian oil refiner Saras (SRS.MI) plans to start up a 200,000-tonne biodiesel plant in Cartagena in December aiming to carve a slice of a rapidly growing Spanish biofuels market, a senior Saras executive said on Monday.

"It will be a start-up phase next month," Saras's Director of planning and development, Giuseppe Citterio, told a biofuels conference in Milan.

The plant would use various vegetable oils as feedstock, he said. Saras has previously estimated investment in the plant at 35 million euros ($44.08 million).

Spain is due to introduce a 2.5 percent compulsory target for biofuels share in total car fuel use next year and raise it to 3.9 percent in 2010.

That would require the output of 655,000 tonnes of petroleum equivalent for the domestic market in 2009, according to renewable energy producers association APPA.

Spanish oil company Repsol (REP.MC) has a refinery in Cartagena.

(Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova, additional reporting by Martin Roberts in Madrid, Editing by Peter Blackburn)