Universal Biofuels in India delivers $103 million in biodiesel to OMCs in 2024, receives initial $58 million allocation for 2025

Photo: Aemetis Inc.

Aemetis Inc. announced Dec. 3 that the Universal Biofuels subsidiary of Aemetis in India successfully completed delivery of $103 million of biodiesel to the three government-owned oil-marketing companies (OMCs) under cost-plus supply agreements for the one-year marketing period ending Sept. 30.

Aemetis recently received an initial $58 million of new allocations from OMCs for biodiesel supply in the current marketing year ending Sept. 30, 2025, and has been producing biodiesel for deliveries scheduled to begin this month.

The first allocation of biodiesel deliveries for the current year was issued by the OMCs in late November and the pricing for the deliveries will be based on a cost-plus pricing formula.

Multiple tenders were issued by OMCs during the last supply year ending Sept. 30, and multiple tenders are expected again in the current year.

During a recent biodiesel plant upgrade and maintenance cycle, Universal Biofuels significantly expanded the production capacity of its proprietary process that produces biodiesel from waste and byproducts that the subsidiary utilizes to produce biofuels that are lower carbon intensity and have a significantly reduced cost.

“Universal Biofuels has now successfully completed deliveries under the third set of cost-plus contracts with OMCs, highlighting our track record for producing high-quality renewable fuels to support the India National Biofuels Policy goal of a 5 percent blend of biodiesel,” said Eric McAfee, the chairman and CEO of Aemetis.

“The recent capacity expansion of our proprietary biodiesel production process increases our profitability per gallon and supports the IPO (initial public offering) process for Universal Biofuels that is currently under way,” he added.

Currently, India blends biodiesel at about a 1 percent ratio into petroleum diesel.

The cost-plus contract used by OMCs to purchase biodiesel has attracted new investment and capacity expansion to meet a projected $5 billion biodiesel market, expanding from 250 million gallons a year to 1.25 billion gallons per year.