Eni Sustainable Mobility SpA and PBF Energy Inc. have closed on their St. Bernard Renewables LLC joint venture (JV) project where each is a 50% partner, the companies announced June 28.

St. Bernard Renewables is an operating biorefinery in Louisiana co-located with PBF’s Chalmette Refinery.

PBF provided the biorefinery and Eni Sustainable committed to making capital reimbursements and contributions totaling $835 million to PBF. $431 million was paid at closing, with the remainder of the total consideration to be contributed by Eni once the pre-treatment unit starts up, which is mechanically complete and expected to be commissioned in the near future. An additional $50 million from Eni is conditional on project performance.

The biorefinery will mainly produce renewable HVO diesel, or hydrotreated vegetable oil, with a production capacity of 306 million gallons per year. It is also expected to hit a processing capacity of approximately 1.1 million tons/year of raw materials, with full pretreatment capabilities.

The project increases Eni Sustainable Mobility’s biorefining capacity to 1.6 million tons (MMton) from 1.1 MMton. By 2025, the company expects to reach 3 million tonnes per year (mtpy) by 2025 and exceed 5 mtpy by 2030.

"The closing of the acquisition of 50% of the St. Bernard Renewables biorefinery and the creation of a dedicated JV with an important U.S. partner such as PBF, confirms the relevance of biofuels for Eni Sustainable Mobility, which already operates two biorefineries in Italy, and represents a further step forward in the decarbonization process of transport, including 'hard to abate' sectors such as heavy vehicles,” said Stefano Ballista, CEO of Eni Sustainable Mobility.

The joint venture will operate as an independent entity for raw material procurement and product distribution, and the Chalmette Refinery’s operations and ownership will not be affected.

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