Shell buys waste oil recycling firm EcoOils to expand biofuels production

Shell France LNG

Shell Eastern Petroleum, a unit of oil giant Shell, has acquired Asia-based waste oil recycling firm EcoOils to expand its biofuels production.

The company will completely take over EcoOils’ subsidiaries in Malaysia and a 90 percent stake in its Indonesian subsidiaries through the deal. Shell Eastern did not disclose the value of the investment.

“This acquisition provides secure access to a recognized, advanced feedstock, which can be used at Shell’s biofuels facilities to meet that aim,” said Sinhead Lynch, senior vice-president for low carbon fuels at Shell.

EcoOils has a production capacity of 65,000 tons per year of spent bleaching earth oil, a type of recycled oil that can be used as feedstock for biofuel production. Bleaching earth is a clay material used to absorb impurities during the palm oil refining process.