Vertex Energy’s Mobile, Alabama, renewable diesel facility loses $8.5 million in Q3

Vertex Energy announced in its third-quarter financials that its renewable diesel facility in Mobile, Alabama, generated a gross loss of $8.5 million for the period.

Meanwhile, the Mobile refinery’s conventional operations generated a gross profit of $86.2 million in the three-month period.

The renewable diesel facility featured throughput of 5,397 barrels per day in the quarter, which, if annualized, comes to about 77 million gallons per year.

The company said this run rate reflects a phase-one capacity utilization of 67.5 percent.

Vertex Energy added that, during the third quarter, the company continued to advance its alternative-feedstock supply strategy.

The company said it has completed the required temporary filings for California Low Carbon Fuel Standard credits at the default carbon intensity (CI) score.

Vertex expects the initial default level LCFS credits to be applied to all volumes of renewable diesel produced during the third and fourth quarters of this year, and to contribute to financial results in the fourth quarter.

The company said during the third quarter it successfully completed runs to support filing for proprietary CI scores of LCFS pathways for soybean oil, distillers corn oil and canola and is completing the necessary tallow runs in November.

The filings for each of these four feedstocks are expected to be completed during the fourth quarter as scheduled.

Once completed, these filings will allow Vertex to receive the increased credit value available with their lower CI production as compared to the default temporary values.

“We continue to advance our alternative-feedstock strategy for optimization of our renewable diesel operations and are actively assessing strategic options related to this asset in an effort to bring a portion of what we believe is the substantial unrecognized value of this asset forward to add liquidity and greater financial flexibility to the company,” said Benjamin Cowart, CEO of Vertex Energy.