Green crude from Sapphire finds new customer

Algae-based green crude oil producer Sapphire Energy has entered into a commercial agreement with Tesoro Refining and Marketing, a subsidiary of Tesoro.

Tesoro will purchase crude oil from Sapphire’s green crude farm in New Mexico, which recently reached continuous cultivation and crude oil production.

“In less than one year, we have started up commercial demonstration to grow algae, produced crude oil from our farm and now will start providing barrels of our oil to be refined for market use,’ says Sapphire Energy CEO Cynthia Warner. ‘This t is important for the industry as it validates the benefits and advantages of green crude, confirming its place as a renewable crude oil solution.’

Oil extraction is conducted at Sapphire’s facility by converting wet algae to crude oil, and enables algae to be processed without the need for a drying step.