Singapore wins race to house new renewable diesel plant of energy giant Neste

ENERGY giant Neste has decided to build its next large-scale renewable diesel plant in Singapore.

The location for the new facility had earlier been a toss-up between Singapore and the United States.

"There were two equally good locations for the refinery, the United States and Singapore," said Kaisa Hietala, head of Neste's renewable products business, in a statement on Tuesday.

"We investigated the strengths of both potential operating environments, and also revisited our outlooks for raw materials and demand. Based on this overall assessment, we settled on Singapore."

Neste has started a detailed technical study of the new production line, and aims to come to a final investment decision by the end of 2018.

If the project proceeds as planned, production at the new line will begin in 2022, the group said.

It did not disclose how much the new investment will cost.

Neste's renewable diesel production capacity stands at 2.6 million tonnes today. More than one million of its renewable diesel is produced in Singapore, with the same amount in Rotterdam and the rest in Porvoo, Finland.

The new production line will expand Neste's capacity at the Singapore refinery by one million tonnes. This will, in turn, eliminate bottlenecks and raise the group's total capacity to three million tonnes by 2020, it said.

In addition to producing renewable diesel, the new project will focus on renewable aviation fuel and raw materials for various biochemical uses.