Phillips 66 Bay Area Refinery To Become Renewable Fuels Plant

Phillips 66, a diversified energy manufacturing and logistics company, plans to reconfigure its San Francisco refinery in Rodeo, Calif., to produce renewable fuels. The plant would no longer produce fuels from crude oil, but instead would make fuels from used cooking oil, fats, greases, and soybean oils.

According to Phillips 66, its RodeoRenewed project would produce 680 million gallons annually of renewable diesel, renewable gasoline, and sustainable jet fuel. Combined with the production of renewable fuels from an existing project in development, the plant would produce more than 800 million gallons a year of renewable fuels, making it the world’s largest facility of its kind.

The project scope includes the construction of pre-treatment units and the repurposing of existing hydrocracking units to enable production of renewable fuels. Its flexible logistics infrastructure will be utilized to bring in cooking oil, fats, greases, and soybean oils from global sources and supply renewable fuels to the California market. This capital efficient investment is expected to deliver strong returns through the sale of high value products while reducing the plant’s operating costs.

“Phillips 66 is taking a significant step with RodeoRenewed to support demand for renewable fuels and help California meet its low carbon objectives,” said Greg Garland, chairman and CEO of Phillips 66. “We believe the world will require a mix of fuels to meet the growing need for affordable energy, and the renewable fuels from RodeoRenewed will be an important part of that mix.”

If approved by Contra Costa County officials and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, renewable fuels production is expected to begin in early 2024. Once reconfigured, the plant will no longer transport or process crude oil.

Phillips 66 also announced plans to shut down the Rodeo Carbon Plant and Santa Maria refining facility in Arroyo Grande, Calif., in 2023. Associated crude oil pipelines will be taken out of service in phases starting in 2023.

SOURCE: The Weekly Propane Newsletter, August 20, 2020. Weekly Propane Newsletter subscribers receive all the latest posted and spot prices from major terminals and refineries around the U.S. delivered to inboxes every week. Receive a center spread of posted prices with hundreds of postings updated each week, along with market analysis, insightful commentary, and much more not found elsewhere.