Brazil’s BSBIOS to build advanced biofuels plant in Paraguay; largest private investment in country’s history

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The company was granted approval by the Paraguayan government in May 15 to change the land on which the company will be built under the  incentive scheme. Construction is currently underway at the company’s workshop and storage facilities, in charge of preparing the land for works to begin.

The current status of the project was reported during a meeting of company representatives with Paraguay’s president Mario Abdo Benítez and other officials. At the time, Minister of Industry and Trade Luis Alberto Castiglioni presented ECB Battistella Group CEO with Resolution No. 723, declaring the “Omega Green Investment Project” one of institutional interest.

The Paraguayan government document states that the project “will have a great impact on national and local economy, because it targets the region’s social-economic development, the creation of direct and indirect jobs, and the promotion and use of the country’s energy and natural resources.”

Also attending were Minister Counselor for Strategic Affairs of the Presidency Federico González, Itaipu Paraguay president Manuel Maria Caceres, Itaipu Counselor Liz Cramer, and the ECB Group’s Superintendent of Institutional Relations Ricardo Feistauer.

Initial work on the Omega Green project began on a new 484-hectare site the company acquired in Villeta, 45 kilometers from Asunción, Paraguay’s capital. The area is 5 kilometers away from an earlier property where the company farmed 70 hectares.

The new area has the advantage of bordering the Villeta-Alberdi highway for 220 meters on one side and with a wider strip of the Paraguay River on the other. Another advantage is its proximity to a power substation (Subestación Buey Rodeo) located only about 100 meters away.

“The property offers the possibility of accommodating future expansion, with a larger area for port development, and allows us to welcome strategic partners who can invest in related activities,” Battistella said in a statement.

He added that the proximity to the paved highway and substation also lowers the project’s operating costs. The land will have a permanent 100-hectare protection area (PPA).

With the land’s final occupation, the modification of the area was approved under the free zone regime for the Omega Green project established by the Paraguayan government on September 15, 2020, which guarantees the maintenance of the project’s legal conditions for a period of 30 years, renewable for another 30, thereby boosting the investment’s economic security.

Launched in February 2019, the Omega Green project is the largest private investment in Paraguay’s history and foresees the construction of the first modern biofuels plant in the Southern Hemisphere. It will produce renewable diesel and renewable aviation paraffin.