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# Montana Renewables Cuts SAF Expansion Cost From $1.2B to $137M
- URL: https://review.iffw.sg/montana-renewables-cuts-saf-expansion-cost-from-1-2b-to-137m/
- Published: 2026-09-06T13:36:49.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-07T14:14:05.000Z
- Description: Calumet has cut Montana Renewables' remaining SAF expansion capital to $137 million from $1.2 billion by repurposing refinery equipment under lease. Already at a 60-million-gallon run rate, the facility targets 200 million gallons annually by 2028.
- Author: Editor
- Tags: News, Aviation, SAF, America

Calumet Inc. has announced a revised, capital-efficient expansion plan for Montana Renewables, targeting approximately 200 million gallons of annual SAF production capacity and 17,000 barrels per day of total renewable product sales by year-end 2028\. The remaining project capital required has been cut to USD 137 million, down from the USD 1.2 billion originally contemplated under the plan's earlier Phase 2 design.

### **How the Cost Fell by Nearly Ninety Percent** 

The centrepiece of the revised plan is redeploying selected equipment, a hydrotreater, hydrogen plant, and naphtha splitter, from the adjacent Calumet Montana Refining asphalt facility to Montana Renewables under a long-term lease, rather than constructing new equipment from scratch. The tied-in hydrotreater creates what the company describes as a proprietary dual reactor system running in "polishing" service rather than the industry-standard "cracking" service, delivering what Calumet calls competitively advantaged SAF yields while lowering by-product formation. Rather than one large construction project, the expansion is structured as six smaller, individually quick-payback projects, each intended to reduce construction risk and generate returns incrementally rather than requiring the full capital outlay before any return materializes.

### **What This Means for the DOE Loan Behind the Project** 

Montana Renewables and the US Department of Energy have amended the loan guarantee agreement originally executed in January 2025, reducing Phase 2 availability from up to USD 658 million to a single final draw of USD 34 million, with the remaining balance expected to be funded from Montana Renewables' own earnings. The company states the revised structure requires no third-party equity, avoiding shareholder dilution, a different financing profile from many of the debt-and-equity blended structures covered elsewhere in this series for first-of-a-kind SAF projects.

### **The Production Ramp Already Underway** 

Following constraint-removal work completed at a spring 2026 turnaround, Montana Renewables is currently producing at a run rate of 60 million gallons of SAF annually, with the company targeting more than 80 million gallons by year-end 2026, more than 120 million gallons by spring 2027, and approximately 200 million gallons by year-end 2028\. This is a facility already in commercial operation and scaling incrementally, rather than a pre-FID project still awaiting a construction decision, a different stage from most projects this series has tracked.

### **A Secondary Product Stream Worth Noting** 

Alongside SAF, the reconfiguration captures roughly 20 million gallons per year of renewable propane and butane as saleable product, material previously burned as fuel gas within the refining process, while also improving renewable naphtha yields and reducing operating costs through scale and lower water usage.

*Source:* [*Montana Renewables*](https://montanarenewables.com/2026/09/montana-renewables-announces-innovative-capital-efficient-expansion-to-200-million-gallons-of-sustainable-aviation-fuel/?ref=review.iffw.sg)*, 1 September 2026.*