Petrobras approves $1.2 billion renewable fuels plant in Brazil

Petrobras on June 19 approved a $1.2 billion final investment decision for a renewable fuels plant at RPBC in Cubatão, São Paulo. The company said the unit will make up to 15,000 barrels per day of BioQAV, or SAF, and renewable diesel, with construction due by the end of 2026 and commercial operations targeted for 2030.

The project is the clearest sign yet that Brazil’s biggest oil company is treating low-carbon aviation fuel and renewable diesel as a long-term refining line, not a side bet. Petrobras said the RPBC Biorrefino unit fits its Business Plan 2026-2030, Brazil’s Fuel of the Future law, and CORSIA, the aviation emissions scheme that begins applying to airlines in 2027.

Petrobras first unveiled the dedicated RPBC plant in December 2022, when it described the site as the country’s first fully dedicated renewable diesel and BioQAV facility. That original plan called for 6,000 bpd of BioQAV and 6,000 bpd of renewable diesel from up to 790,000 tons a year of feedstock, with emissions reductions of 55% to 90% versus fossil-derived fuels.

By December 2023, Petrobras had signed a HEFA technology agreement with Honeywell UOP for the unit. The company said the process train would handle 2,700 cubic meters per day of vegetable oils and animal fats, with a feedstock mix of about 70% soybean oil and 30% beef tallow. In August 2025, Petrobras said it had started contracting the first package of the project, covering the pretreatment unit and storage tanks for soybean oil and beef tallow, after splitting the development into five contracting packages.

Petrobras said the works should create about 3,000 jobs. The scale of the RPBC unit, together with its focus on soy oil and tallow, gives Brazil a larger industrial foothold in the SAF and HVO chain just as airlines begin managing CORSIA exposure and refiners look for low-carbon products that can compete in export markets.