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BP (NYSE:BP) will invest 353M yuan (~$48.5M) to acquire a 15% stake in Chinese renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel producer Lianyungang Jiaao New Energy, S&P Global reported Wednesday.
Parent company Jiaao Enprotech has 100K metric tons/year of SAF capacity, and the deal comes amid rising market talk of China potentially announcing SAF mandates in the near future, according to the report.
Global consumption of SAF reached 450K-500K tons in 2023, double the previous year’s volume, yet it accounted for just 0.1% of total jet fuel consumption, which is forecast to reach 2.1M bbl/day by 2050, displacing nearly a quarter of global jet fuel demand.
Despite the investment, BP (BP) has been scaling back plans for new SAF and renewable diesel projects at existing sites, including development of new biofuels projects at its Lingen refinery in Germany and its Cherry Point refinery in Washington state, while also assessing three other projects.