Sunoco Inc Ethanol Plant To Commence By July 1

PHILADELPHIA - Sunoco Inc.'s (SUN) upstate New York ethanol plant should be operational by July 1 after the completion of nearly six months of repairs needed to make the facility operational, a company spokesman said Friday.

The retrofit of the 100 million gallon-per-year plant should be nearly complete by the end of June, but it will take several months before the facility can run at full capacity, Sunoco spokesman Thomas Golembeski said from his company's headquarters. Sunoco bought the plant for $8.5 million in June 2009 from a company in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings.

At the time of the sale Sunoco said the plant, which has never been started, would require at least $10 million worth of upgrades.

The facility could eventually meet 25% of the company's ethanol needs, Sunoco has said. Refiners are required to blend ethanol into their gasoline as part of a federal renewable fuels standard.

Sunoco has signaled that it would be interested in delving into other biofuels ventures.

On Friday, Golembeski said the company is conducting feasibility studies on whether or not it can turn its closed Eagle Point refinery in Westville, N.J., into some sort of biofuel facility. So far the company has not made any decisions, Golembeski said.

In February, Sunoco permanently shut the 1450,000 barrel-a-day Eagle Point oil refinery because of low demand for fuel and poor margins on oil based refined products.

source: nasdaq