Neste to invest €1.4bn in renewable products

THE oil company Neste is to invest €1.4bn (US$1.6bn) to enable the production of additional renewable products in Singapore. The company based its decision to do so on the growing demand for low-carbon solutions in transport and cities, aviation, and polymers and chemicals.

Currently, Neste’s renewable products capacity is about 2.7m t/y. More than 1m t/y is produced in Singapore and the same is produced in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The remaining amount is produced in Porvoo, Finland. The company also does conventional oil refining in Finland.

The investment will increase the company’s overall renewable products production capacity in Singapore by up to 1.3m t/y to close to 4.5m t/y.

Neste’s renewable product refineries can produce renewable diesel as well as renewable aviation fuel and raw materials for various polymers and chemicals. The investment will give it more product solutions to choose from. 

Included in the investment will be additional logistics capabilities and enhanced material pre-treatment for the use of increasingly low-quality waste and residue raw materials. These will also be added to the existing refinery.

Production of the new line of products is expected to begin in the first half of 2022. Before the new production begins, Neste will continue to eliminate bottlenecks in existing production. This is expected to increase capacity to 3m t by 2020.

Peter Vanacker, CEO of Neste, said: “Neste is in the business of helping transport and cities, aviation, polymers and chemicals customers make their business more sustainable and will continue to lead the way for renewable products. We are already a global leader in renewable products produced from waste and residues. This investment marks an important step in the execution of our profitable growth strategy globally.”

“The investment will strengthen our competitive advantages, which are based on the global optimisation of our production and waste and residue raw material usage. With our proprietary NEXBTL technology, renewable products can be refined flexibly from a wide variety of lower quality waste and residues while the end-products retain their high quality. We will leverage the experience gained at our existing sites in Singapore, Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Porvoo, Finland.”

Neste has recently emerged as a leading player in the renewable diesel market, which Reuters reports is due to its global sales and wide range of feedstock including waste and residues such as animal fats.