Tesoro could run a "meaningful amount" of renewable feedstocks at its refineries within seven years, executive vice president of operations Cynthia Warner said today.
The company has for years pursued renewable or biofuel alternatives in its predominantly US west coast refining system, both to generate credits needed to satisfy state and federal regulations and to further increase its feedstock options. A joint venture agreement with Fulcrum BioEnergy reached last year remained on track to supply 800 b/d of feedstock to Tesoro's 168,000 b/d Golden Eagle refinery in Martinez, California, Warner said on the sidelines of the Argus Crude Summit in Houston.
If successful, the partnership could allow Fulcrum and other partners to scale up production to supply a more significant amount of the feedstock in five to seven years, Warner said.
Both independent refiners and major oil companies have pursued various biofuels projects. US independent refiner Valero is one of the largest US producers of ethanol, and Shell participates in joint venture sugarcane ethanol production in Brazil. Both products blend into finished gasoline but cannot move by traditional petroleum pipelines or be generated at either company's refineries.
Tesoro preferred to find technologies that worked with their existing refining equipment instead of building new specialized facilities. The company purchased Virent last year to acquire a process that generates fuels chemically identical to conventional gasoline, distillate and jet fuels from renewable sources, generating both fuel sales and valuable regulatory credits.
Tesoro could also sell the feedstock or license the technology to other refiners.
"It is our view that once it is ready for scale up, the way to maximize its impact on the market is not to be the only ones using it," Warner said.
