Dive Brief:
- Fulcrum BioEnergy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Delaware court on Monday. The company's officers are seeking protections for the parent company and Fulcrum Sierra Biofuels, which ran its Nevada waste refining plant before it shut down earlier this year.
- Fulcrum has faced a growing number of lawsuits from contractors who say it failed to pay them for months. The bankruptcy filing lists the company's largest unpaid creditors, including contractors like United Rentals and project partners like WM.
- The company reported liabilities between $100 million and $500 million compared to assets of $1 million to $10 million. It reported it has more than 200 creditors.
Dive Insight:
The bankruptcy is the latest setback for a company which once promised to operate the first commercial-scale waste-to-sustainable aviation fuel facility in the United States. Now some of the partners that once backed the project are among those in line for repayment.
California-based Fulcrum abruptly laid off workers at its Nevada facility in May after reported difficulties getting the plant to operate as planned. Further plans for facilities in Indiana and the United Kingdom appeared to be placed on hold around the same time.
The Nevada facility, which opened in 2022, was Fulcrum's flagship effort. It was backed by companies like WM, which provided waste as a feedstock, and Marathon Petroleum, which was set to refine the synthetic crude oil Fulcrum produced into SAF. Both of those companies are listed as creditors in the bankruptcy filing — Marathon is owed $858,925 and WM is owed $363,292.95, per the filing. WM's contact was listed as a representative from Lockwood Regional Landfill, the Nevada facility which had an agreement with Fulcrum.
The company's largest creditor is the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, or TIAA, which provided a roughly $40 million bank loan. Rustic Canyon Ventures also provided a $5 million loan, per the filing.
Rick Barraza, previously the company's vice president of administration, is listed as an officer in the filing. Mark Smith, a director at CVR Energy, is also listed as chief restructuring officer. His biography on CVR's website says he previously held roles in the oil and gas refining industry. Fulcrum's last listed CEO, Eric Pryor, left the company after its facility shut down, and it remains unclear who, if anyone, replaced him.
Fulcrum has retained Delaware law firm Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell for the bankruptcy case. The three entities involved in the case are Fulcrum BioEnergy, Fulcrum Sierra Holdings and Fulcrum Sierra Finance Company.
