Chevron invests in biodiesel

Chevron Corporation has invested in a Texas-based company that is building one of the first large-scale biodiesel plants in the United States. The facility will have the potential to produce 100 million gallons per year of this renewable fuel, an amount that would more than double the current production volume of biodiesel in the United States.

Chevron, through its subsidiary, Chevron Technology Ventures (CTV), has taken an equity position in Galveston Bay Biodiesel (GBB). The Houston-based company is constructing a biodiesel production and distribution facility in Galveston, Texas, scheduled for completion by the end of 2006.

GBB will produce biodiesel from soybeans and other renewable feedstocks. GBB has the option to sell pure biodiesel or biodiesel blended with off-road or on-road diesel into marine, commercial, trucking and industrial markets in the Galveston and Houston metropolitan areas.

GBB will have initial production of 20 million gallons per year, representing almost a 27 percent increase in total US biodiesel production of 75 million gallons in 2005. The facility has the capability to expand operations to produce 100 million gallons of fuel per year.