Chevron says its attempts at producing profitable, commercial-scale alternative fuels have failed.
The oil company has spent “significant sums” and unsuccessfully evaluated more than 100 kinds of feedstock and 50 techniques for turning them into fuel, Bloomberg reports.
“The smartest minds in my company and others haven’t yet cracked the code on pairing the right feedstock conversion technology and logistics in an economic and scalable package,” Chevron chairman and CEO John Watson told the Economic Club of Minnesota.
Chevron’s failed attempts mirror those by other major oil producers including Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil, which has said its $600 million algae-based fuel project may take a quarter-decade to succeed.
Similarly, BP withdrew from the solar industry in 2011 and last year put $3.1 billion of wind assets for sale, according to Bloomberg.