Calumet Specialty Products Partners L.P. on April 25 announced that its Montana Renewables subsidiary (MRL) completed the startup of its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and pretreatment units. Calumet and its SAF off-taker plan to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 10, 2023 to recognize this important milestone.

"We are pleased to report that our leading Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Renewable Diesel, and Renewable Hydrogen platform is fully complete and operating," said Bruce Fleming, CEO of Montana Renewables. "As we ramp up our pre-treater and draw down existing safety stock of clean feed, we reconfirm go-forward EBITDA guidance of $1.25 to $1.45 per gallon based on local sourcing of untreated feedstocks."

On April 19, MRL closed a $75 million bridge loan with I Squared Capital. The bridge loan bears a variable rate of interest at SOFR plus 6.0 to 7.3 percent per annum and we have the flexibility to prepay 50 percent of principal under the bridge loan from free cash flow by the end of 2024. "Our capital markets strategy remains unchanged," said Fleming. "This transaction provides strategic optionality as we continue to build North America's largest SAF business." For further details of this financing, please refer to our Current Report on Form 8-K that will be filed today.

Calumet's CEO Todd Borgmann added "Following a year in which we've demonstrated the power of Calumet's legacy Specialty business, we can now add the full earnings power of Montana Renewables. Over the past two years, our Montana Renewables team has quickly launched a leading renewables platform and created a first mover advantage in SAF. This major accomplishment is the most recent step in our transformational plan to unlock value for Calumet's unitholders."