U.S. Refiners Revamp Operations as Renewable Fuel Costs Surge
by Jarrett Renshaw and Chris Prentice (Reuters/Yahoo! Finance) … The alternative is for merchant refiners to increase their ability to blend ethanol. PBF Energy is the latest refiner to take this approach.
PBF has asked Delaware regulators to expand its ethanol handling capacity at its Delaware City refinery to 420,000 gallons from 84,000 gallons to defray some of the renewable-fuel costs.
PBF paid $160 million for renewable fuel credits in the first half of 2016, more than double the $72 million it paid in the first half of 2015.
Also taking PBF’s approach are the likes of Marathon Petroleum Corp and Tesoro Corp. Tesoro this week announced plans to produce a renewable biocrude to ultimately help meet its obligations.
“Unlike others in our industry, we prefer to take rational, business-oriented steps to mitigate against risks posed by the RFS rather than write to, or file meaningless petitions for review with, the EPA,” said Stephen Brown, vice president and counsel at Tesoro. READ MORE
