Despite the apparent dipping interest of the EU and US in biofuels, Neste Oil’s renewable fuel business is boosting its prospects. The Finnish refiner, one of the top buyers of palm oil in the world, is bucking the malaise in the European refinery sector.

“Neste Oil is the best-performing major European energy stock (rising 78%, year-to-10 September)… after saying full-year earnings will exceed analyst estimates as renewable-fuel sales gain… particularly in the North American markets. As Neste’s NExBTL product meets (California’s) own standards, it could sell about 290,000 tonnes this year of the biodiesel there, or about 18% of total production... Neste is benefiting from increased demand for biodiesel. The EU (encourages) land-transport energy from renewable sources… The guidance upgrade was mainly due to low palm oil prices and high Renewable Identification Number prices in the US (bloomberg.com, 10 Sep 2013).
Neste Oil’s model focuses on serving local markets, ultra-modern technology and biofuels. Neste Oil targets mostly the Baltic markets (68% of its sales), Europe (20%) and the United States, Africa and Asia (12%). Neste's heavy focus on biofuels made from palm oil and animal fats turned profitable in the first quarter of 2013. It plans to increase annual renewables output by 15% to 2.3 mill tonnes by 2015. In the US, which buys 35% of Neste renewables, biofuels use was set to double by 2020, Neste said (reuters.com, 16 Sep 2013).

The company has two fossil fuel refineries, in Finland, and three renewable diesel refineries (Finland, Singapore and Rotterdam). All Neste Oil’s NExBTL diesel plants are ISCC-certified and have an EPA Certificate of Registration, for the EU and US markets respectively. Neste Oil has also “developed its own voluntary sustainability verification scheme applicable to any renewable raw material… (it) broadly mirrors the ISCC certification… (with) separate sections devoted to the certification of renewable raw materials, fuel refining, and logistics (company website, 21 Oct 2013). Neste Oil reports only buying CPO that is traceable with known origins, and with reportable and verifiable Greenhouse Gas emission values. It is committed to only using 100% certified palm oil by end of 2015 (company report, 25 Sep 2012).

Source: Khor Report's Palm Oil Nov/Dec 2013, Issue 5 (released)