Wyoming Refinery to Turn into Renewables Facility

Starwood Energy Group Global, Inc. has announced that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Slate Refining, LLC to reconfigure Slate’s refinery located in Douglas, Wyoming, into a renewable fuels production facility.

On completion, the facility is expected to annually produce over 100 million gallons of renewable fuels such as renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel and arctic diesel. Starwood noted that its extensive experience developing, owning, operating and financing renewables and energy transition projects, coupled with Slate’s operational and refining expertise, brings a complementary and world-class team to the project.

“We are excited to partner with Slate on this project and to bring our considerable expertise developing, building and operating world-class energy infrastructure projects to this opportunity,” Himanshu Saxena, the chief executive officer of Starwood Energy, said in a company statement.

“The Douglas facility is ideally positioned to provide renewable fuels to serve both the U.S. and Canadian markets to help off-takers meet their renewable fuel goals. The energy sector is undergoing rapid transition with emphasis on ESG and decarbonization and Starwood Energy is proud to be at the forefront of these changes,” Saxena added in the statement.

Commenting on the agreement, Jared Geilmann, the CEO of Slate, said, “Slate is thrilled to be partnering with Starwood Energy on this exciting opportunity to be a leader in the development of renewable fuels”.

“We are confident that the combination of our teams’ extensive operating experience and development expertise will result in a highly successful project … We believe that this partnership will provide the framework to bring together all of the necessary resources, talent, creativity and experience to repurpose and operate a top-tier renewable fuels facility,” he added.

Slate’s Douglas refinery, which is located in the heart of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin has a production capacity of 5,000 barrels per day and produces high quality motor fuels and other refined products, the company’s website outlines. Slate is described as an energy production and wholesale distribution and logistics company focused on the development of renewable and transition fuel projects.

Starwood Energy Group is a private equity investment firm that specializes in energy infrastructure investments. Through its existing general opportunity funds and affiliated investment vehicles, Starwood Energy has raised in excess of $3 billion of equity capital and has executed transactions totaling more than $8 billion in enterprise value, according to its website.

In April this year, Starwood Energy penned an open letter proposal to invest $8 billion in power infrastructure in Texas, following the state’s energy crisis in February. The business already has several realized and unrealized Texas investments in its portfolio, including the Crane Solar, Shannon Wind, Stephens Ranch, Horse Creek and Electra developments.

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