Conversion of idled Newfoundland refinery to renewables production advances

Dallas-based private equity firm Cresta Fund Management’s Braya Renewable Fuels has appointed a senior leadership team to oversee the operator’s ongoing conversion of the 130,000-b/d refinery—formerly owned and operated by NARL Refining LP—at Come-by-Chance, Newf., into a production hub for renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

New additions to Braya’s executive team include:

• Frank Almaraz, chief executive officer.
• Jim Stump, president.
• Josh Bailey, chief commercial officer.
• Luigi Trigilio, vice-president, logistics.

The February announcement follows Cresta’s late-November 2021 acquisition of controlling interest in the refinery from New York-based investment management firm Silverpeak, which had been seeking a buyer for the Newfoundland refining and related assets since 2020 after production activities at the site halted in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak (OGJ Online, Oct. 6, 2020; May 28, 2020; Apr. 1, 2020).

While Cresta now holds majority interest in the refinery, Silverpeak continues to hold a minority interest in Braya Renewable Fuels and remains the controlling entity of NARL Marketing to ensure ongoing fuel supplies to Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as surrounding areas and islands, the companies said in a Nov. 30, 2021, release.

Supported by the government of Newfoundland and Labrador—which in January 2021 entered into a funding agreement with NARL Refining to keep the refinery in warm-idle mode while Silverpeak pursued the sale to Cresta—construction on the conventional-to-renewables refinery conversion project was already under way by more than 400 workers at the site as of late 2021, according to a separate November release from the provincial government.

Scheduled to begin commercial operation in second-half 2022, the first phase of the newly converted refinery will be able to produce 18,000 b/d of renewable diesel and SAF, with a second phase of the project to double production capacity to about 36,000 b/d, according to Cresta’s website.

Alongside the refinery’s second-phase expansion—the definitive timeframe for which has yet to be revealed—Cresta and the provincial government confirmed the conversion project also will enable the site’s potential expansion into other forms of energy such as generation of green hydrogen.

Equipped with logistics to source global feedstocks and to sell its production to US, Canadian, and European markets, Cresta said the converted refinery additionally will be equipped to make unspecified modifications in the future to expand production capacities at the site as it grows and adapts alongside increasing North American renewable fuel demand.

While the partners have yet to officially state the precise feedstock Braya will use for initial production of renewable diesel and SAF in mid-2022, Cresta’s website confirms the refinery conversion project has involved repurposing works that will enable processing of any type of biomass feedstock.