Setback for Narrogin biorefinery

The approvals process for a $200 million biorefinery in the Wheatbelt backed by the state government has been terminated.

Melbourne-based FutureEnergy Australia lodged plans for the 18-million-tonne-per-year biorefinery at Narrogin in 2022, which was expected to create 35 permanent jobs.

The company was a joint venture between ASX-listed Carnarvon Energy and Frontier Energy Group. Carnarvon stepped away from the project last year.

In a notice to the Environmental Protection Authority on Monday, chairman Darren Walsh revealed assessment of the project had been terminated.

No reason was given for its termination.

The state government in 2023 awarded $4.72m to the project under a $148m tranche of funding to diversify WA’s economy.

Future Energy Australia and Frontier Impact Group have been contacted for comment.

The termination follows BP in February pushing back plans to build a $600m biorefinery at its old Kwinana oil refinery site.

BP said that decision was made due to issues with project financing and inadequate government policy to support the nascent sector.

No new timeline has been given by BP for development of the plant.