Royal Dutch Shell and BP PLC halted funds for four separate investments, executives at BP and Royal Dutch Shell said in interviews.

This decision was spurred due to having the technology to produce fuel from woody plants and waste won't be considered as economical until the 2020 or far beyond.

Phil New, Head of BP's Biofuels program commented, "This is very capital intensive. There's lots of difficult engineering. It will take time for scale-up."

The decision of both BP and Royal Dutch Shell helped to cut the global investment in biofuel production to around $57 million in the first quarter of 2013, which the lowest since 2006. The peak was at $7.6 billion, which was seen in the last quarter of 2007.

Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, Maria van der Hoeven, said in an e-mail, "Progress in deploying these technologies has been slower than many had anticipated and what's needed to keep on track with our aspirations. Many potential producers have found it difficult to secure the capital they need."