Montana Renewables completes start-up of SAF, feedstock-pretreatment units

Refinery assets have been completely separated into a 12,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) crude-oil refinery and 12,000 bpd of renewables. For renewables, this breaks down to approximately 135 million gallons per year (mgy) of renewable diesel capacity, 30 mgy of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) capacity and 15 mgy of renewable naphtha capacity. (Photo: Montana Renewables)

Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP announced April 25 that its Montana Renewables subsidiary has completed the start-up of its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and feedstock-pretreatment units.

Calumet and its SAF offtaker plan to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony May 10 to recognize this important milestone.

“We are pleased to report that our leading SAF, renewable diesel, and renewable hydrogen platform is fully complete and operating,” said Bruce Fleming, CEO of Montana Renewables.

Fleming continued, saying, “As we ramp up our pretreater and draw down existing safety stock of clean feed, we reconfirm go-forward EBITDA guidance of $1.25 to $1.45 per gallon based on local sourcing of untreated feedstocks.”

Montana Renewables closed a $75 million bridge loan April 19 with I Squared Capital.

The bridge loan bears a variable rate of interest at the secured overnight financing rate (SOFR) plus 6 percent to 7.3 percent per year.

Montana Renewables has the flexibility to prepay 50 percent of principal under the bridge loan from free cash flow by the end of 2024.

“Our capital-markets strategy remains unchanged,” Fleming said. “This transaction provides strategic optionality as we continue to build North America’s largest SAF business.”

For further details of this financing, Calumet planned to post its current report on Form 8-K filed April 25.

“Following a year in which we’ve demonstrated the power of Calumet’s legacy specialty business, we can now add the full earnings power of Montana Renewables,” said Calumet’s CEO Todd Borgmann.

He continued, saying, “Over the past two years, our Montana Renewables team has quickly launched a leading renewables platform and created a first-mover advantage in SAF. This major accomplishment is the most recent step in our transformational plan to unlock value for Calumet’s unitholders.”