MOOOOO: Mercuria Energy and Chevron Ink Deal on American Dairy Biomethane
Posted on 09/11/2021
Geneva-based Mercuria Energy Group Ltd is a multinational commodity trading company. Its unit Mercuria Energy Trading, founded in 2004, formed a joint venture with Chevron U.S.A. Inc., a subsidiary of Chevron Corporation to own and operate American Natural Gas LLC (ANG) and its network of 60 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations across the United States. Chevron is building a large-scale, vertically integrated natural gas business in the United States. Through its partnerships with San Francisco-based Brightmark LLC and California Bioenergy, Chevron is developing projects to produce renewable natural gas from dairy digesters across America. The creation of this joint venture will allow Chevron to rapidly grow its renewable natural gas value chain, complementing its previously announced plan to open more than 30 Chevron-branded CNG stations by 2025. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.
Mercuria Energy Group was founded in 2004 by Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi, then executives at Phibro, the commodities trader sold by Citigroup to Occidental Petroleum in 2009. Mercuria Energy Group focused mostly on oil trading until 2007.
Earlier, Brightmark and Chevron U.S.A. expanded their joint venture, Brightmark RNG Holdings LLC, to own projects across the United States to produce and market dairy biomethane. The technology works by digesters capturing methane, converting the biogas to biomethane, and injecting it into utility pipelines as renewable compressed natural gas. Brightmark RNG Holdings LLC’s subsidiaries currently own RNG projects in New York, Michigan, Florida, South Dakota, and Arizona. Chevron will purchase renewable natural gas produced from these projects.
