Nacero Inc.’s delayed groundbreaking since April for its promised $7-billion clean gasoline plant 15 miles west of Odessa at Penwell has evoked skepticism about the plan’s viability, but two men who ought to know say there is nothing to be alarmed about because the huge financial package is still in the works, held up by the topsy-turvy economy.
Odessa Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Director Tom Mansky said Monday that there is residual skepticism from the high-profile FutureGen and Summit Power Group coal gasification schemes at Penwell, neither of which happened after years of sky-high promises. Sponsors finally pulled the plugs on FutureGen in 2007 and Summit 10 years later.
Referring to the $17-billion microchip plant that Samsung has started construction on at Taylor, northwest of Austin, Mansky said, “They’re using their own money at Taylor, but with Nacero being a start-up and the financial markets the way they are, it’s taking a little longer than we would like.
“People are asking every day when we will have the groundbreaking, but Nacero is still working on some things that haven’t been finalized. They’re trying to firm up their financing, which takes a little while in this environment with the stock market going up and down.
“From my discussions, I don’t think there is any indication that it’s not going to happen,” Mansky said. “There is concern with FutureGen and Summit in the background and people having those memories, but there is no reason not to believe what we are being told by the Nacero officials.”
Wesley Burnett, director of project integration for the Houston-based Nacero and Mansky’s predecessor at the chamber, said in a text message that the plan will go through. “I don’t have an update,” said Burnett, who in February had announced that the groundbreaking would be in March or April and that Gov. Greg Abbott was being invited.
“We are still moving forward with the project,” Burnett said Monday. “There is no groundbreaking schedule yet, but positive progress is being made.”
It will be a gargantuan thing with 3,500 workers building the plant and 350 working there when it’s finished, making 70,000 42-gallon barrels per day during the first phase and 100,000 when phase two is completed.
The products will be “Nacero Blue” gasoline from traditional purchased natural gas and “Nacero Green” from captured flare gas from oil wells and methane from landfills and agricultural facilities with Nacero Green being the purer of the two forms.
Just having been granted an air quality permit by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality last November, Nacero President-CEO Jay McKenna said the permit was “a major step forward in our effort to become the climate solution for millions of everyday drivers across Texas and the United States.”
Referring to the plan to build and operate Nacero’s first low and net-zero carbon footprint gasoline plant, McKenna said the Penwell project was “the first of a series of facilities that will bring affordable lower life cycle carbon gasoline to market.”
A company spokesman said then that a similar plant would be built near Scranton, Pa., and others were in the planning stage around the country.
Nacero is a Spanish word meaning “born.”
Other developments in the ambitious all-green scenario have included the granting of tax abatements by various Ector County governmental entities and Nacero’s signing of a contract with NextEra Energy Resources for the Penwell plant to be powered by 20 billion kilowatt hours of electricity from NextEra’s 20-plus Texas wind and solar farms over the 20 years starting in 2025.
“The wind power will complement Nacero’s planned 200-megawatt on-site solar photovoltaic power plant and ensure that the facility is powered by 100 percent renewable electricity,” the companies said in a joint statement.
Founded in 2015, Nacero is led by a team with more than 400 years of combined successful project experience across the clean power, renewables, liquefied natural gas, fuels and petrochemicals sectors, a company spokesman said.
Mansky said Monday that Penwell will transform from an oilfield ghost town to one with truckstops, convenience stores and other features of a viable town. “It will lead to further development,” he said.
“There’ll be a big carbon capture project and a couple of other projects. A cement plant on the other side of I-20 is looking at expanding and there is a potential solar project or two.” Asked if the advent of electric vehicles will obviate the need for gasoline, even the cleanly burning type, he said, “I don’t think we are going to see everyone go electric overnight.
“In 50 years we may visit this again and say, ‘Wow, there are not many gasoline vehicles on the road.’”
Mansky was also asked if Nacero is seeking loans from American financial institutions only or if it is going to foreign sources. “As far as I know, it’s only domestic money that is being invested,” he said.
“If they are getting any foreign money, I’m not aware of that.”
