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Released November 17, 2022 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by Daniel Graeber for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--U.S. air travel group United Airlines (Chicago, Illinois) said it could invest as much as $37.5 million in support of a biorefinery that could produce up to 50,000 barrels of renewable fuels per day, though investments toward more conventional facilities may be another story.
United Airlines said it was making the investment in NEXT Renewable Fuels (Portland, Oregon), which is expected to bring a biorefinery in Oregon online by 2026. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Alternative Fuel Project Database can click here for a related project report.
"The clean fuels industry is taking off and our access to feedstocks, multi-modal distribution, and major industry players positions us to be a leading sustainable aviation fuel supplier on the West Coast," said Christopher Efird, the chief executive officer and chairperson of NEXT. "United's investment in NEXT strengthens our resolve to be one of the clean fuels leaders in the transportation sector."
This represents United's first-ever direct investment in a biorefinery. The company has already conducted a passenger flight on sustainable fuels and has purchased millions of gallons of clean aviation fuel through its Eco-Skies Alliance.
Trends like these are becoming more commonplace. In the utilities sector, British energy major BP (NYSE:BP) has already plunked down $4 billion in cash to acquire Archaea Energy (NYSE:LFG) (Houston, Texas), which operates 50 renewable natural gas and landfill gas-to-energy facilities across the United States.
BP will supply some of the feedstock, meanwhile, to NEXT. The British company said feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) comes from anything from cooking oil, forestry waste, plant-based materials and organic waste from landfills.
But while biofuels are gaining traction, it begs the question of shifting dependencies. Denton Cinquegrana, the chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), part of the IHS brand, said that renewable fuels are indeed "all the rage now."
That could shift the concern away from the high price of crude oil or natural gas toward corn or other plants that can be used for biofuels. Land, meanwhile, could become a premium as farmers feed the fuels sector rather than people or livestock.
Elsewhere, the U.S. refining sector for conventional fuels is already running near peak capacity, though demand seems to be outstripping supplies. That's a particular concern for an East Coast market dealing with a shortage of diesel, a concern that's only grown worse since the loss of the PES Refinery in Philadelphia, the largest and oldest refinery in the region, to a fire in 2019.
Meanwhile, in the U.S. Midwest, or PADD 2, BP's Whiting Refinery, the sixth-largest refinery in the nation and arguably among the oldest, seems to break down on a regular basis, creating fuel concerns throughout the area. In PADD V, meanwhile, Chevron (NYSE:CVX) (San Ramon, California) reported a major blaze at a refinery in California just last week.
The newest refinery in the nation is in Louisiana and it's nearly 50 years old. That is Marathon's (NYSE:MPC) (Findlay, Ohio) facility, which had an initial capacity of 200,000 barrels per day, but upgrades since have more than doubled that. Subscribers to the GMI Refining Plant Database can click here for the detailed plant profile.
In June, Mike Wirth, the chief executive at Chevron, told the Bloomberg news agency, however, that he didn't think there would ever be a new refinery built in the United States, which is bad news for those concerned about diesel supplies or consumer-level gasoline prices.
Patrick DeHaan, the senior petroleum analyst at consumer price-watcher GasBuddy, told Industrial Info that the pandemic dealt a major blow to the downstream sector and given the shift toward greener alternatives, whether SAS or electric vehicles, new investments will be scarce.
"I don't think the U.S. will see much new refining capacity added in the years ahead," he said.
But like fossil fuels in general, this might not be the beginning of the end for refiners. Though investments for new refineries are unlikely, it's another matter for upgrades. Upgrades to Motiva Enterprises' refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, made it the largest in the country. Click here for the plant profile.
Cinquegrana at OPIS added similar developments have occurred in North Dakota, for example, to capitalize on crude oil production from the lucrative Bakken shale basin. Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) (Irving, Texas), meanwhile, will start another unit at its refinery in Beaumont, Texas, by early next year that will have a capacity of 250,000 barrels per day. Subscribers can click here for the related project report, and here for the plant profile.
"If it wasn't added on to an existing facility it might be considered a new refinery," he said.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project Database can click here for a full list of detailed reports for projects mentioned in this article, and click here for a full list of related plant profiles.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
United Airlines said it was making the investment in NEXT Renewable Fuels (Portland, Oregon), which is expected to bring a biorefinery in Oregon online by 2026. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Alternative Fuel Project Database can click here for a related project report.
"The clean fuels industry is taking off and our access to feedstocks, multi-modal distribution, and major industry players positions us to be a leading sustainable aviation fuel supplier on the West Coast," said Christopher Efird, the chief executive officer and chairperson of NEXT. "United's investment in NEXT strengthens our resolve to be one of the clean fuels leaders in the transportation sector."
This represents United's first-ever direct investment in a biorefinery. The company has already conducted a passenger flight on sustainable fuels and has purchased millions of gallons of clean aviation fuel through its Eco-Skies Alliance.
Trends like these are becoming more commonplace. In the utilities sector, British energy major BP (NYSE:BP) has already plunked down $4 billion in cash to acquire Archaea Energy (NYSE:LFG) (Houston, Texas), which operates 50 renewable natural gas and landfill gas-to-energy facilities across the United States.
BP will supply some of the feedstock, meanwhile, to NEXT. The British company said feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) comes from anything from cooking oil, forestry waste, plant-based materials and organic waste from landfills.
But while biofuels are gaining traction, it begs the question of shifting dependencies. Denton Cinquegrana, the chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), part of the IHS brand, said that renewable fuels are indeed "all the rage now."
That could shift the concern away from the high price of crude oil or natural gas toward corn or other plants that can be used for biofuels. Land, meanwhile, could become a premium as farmers feed the fuels sector rather than people or livestock.
Elsewhere, the U.S. refining sector for conventional fuels is already running near peak capacity, though demand seems to be outstripping supplies. That's a particular concern for an East Coast market dealing with a shortage of diesel, a concern that's only grown worse since the loss of the PES Refinery in Philadelphia, the largest and oldest refinery in the region, to a fire in 2019.
Meanwhile, in the U.S. Midwest, or PADD 2, BP's Whiting Refinery, the sixth-largest refinery in the nation and arguably among the oldest, seems to break down on a regular basis, creating fuel concerns throughout the area. In PADD V, meanwhile, Chevron (NYSE:CVX) (San Ramon, California) reported a major blaze at a refinery in California just last week.
The newest refinery in the nation is in Louisiana and it's nearly 50 years old. That is Marathon's (NYSE:MPC) (Findlay, Ohio) facility, which had an initial capacity of 200,000 barrels per day, but upgrades since have more than doubled that. Subscribers to the GMI Refining Plant Database can click here for the detailed plant profile.
In June, Mike Wirth, the chief executive at Chevron, told the Bloomberg news agency, however, that he didn't think there would ever be a new refinery built in the United States, which is bad news for those concerned about diesel supplies or consumer-level gasoline prices.
Patrick DeHaan, the senior petroleum analyst at consumer price-watcher GasBuddy, told Industrial Info that the pandemic dealt a major blow to the downstream sector and given the shift toward greener alternatives, whether SAS or electric vehicles, new investments will be scarce.
"I don't think the U.S. will see much new refining capacity added in the years ahead," he said.
But like fossil fuels in general, this might not be the beginning of the end for refiners. Though investments for new refineries are unlikely, it's another matter for upgrades. Upgrades to Motiva Enterprises' refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, made it the largest in the country. Click here for the plant profile.
Cinquegrana at OPIS added similar developments have occurred in North Dakota, for example, to capitalize on crude oil production from the lucrative Bakken shale basin. Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) (Irving, Texas), meanwhile, will start another unit at its refinery in Beaumont, Texas, by early next year that will have a capacity of 250,000 barrels per day. Subscribers can click here for the related project report, and here for the plant profile.
"If it wasn't added on to an existing facility it might be considered a new refinery," he said.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project Database can click here for a full list of detailed reports for projects mentioned in this article, and click here for a full list of related plant profiles.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
