Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) and ADM announced an agreement to form a joint venture for the production of soybean oil to supply rapidly growing demand for renewable diesel fuel.

Under the terms of the agreement, the joint venture will own and operate ADM’s previously announced soybean processing complex in Spiritwood, North Dakota, with ADM owning 75% of the joint venture and MPC owning 25%. When complete in 2023, the Spiritwood facility will source and process local soybeans and supply the resulting soybean oil exclusively to MPC.

The Spiritwood complex is expected to produce approximately 600 million pounds of refined soybean oil annually, enough feedstock for approximately 75 million gallons of renewable diesel per year.

In addition to the Spiritwood joint venture, the companies anticipate working together to explore other opportunities for agriculture to support renewable transportation fuels.

We already provide MPC with soybean oil for renewable diesel production, but this agreement will significantly expand our collaborative relationship. Together, MPC and ADM have the expertise, scale and capabilities to deliver sustainable outcomes that start on the farm and go all the way to the fuel in millions of commercial and personal vehicles—and in this case, supporting renewable diesel demand that we believe may be as much as 5 billion gallons by 2025. And what’s even more exciting is that we see the opportunity to work together to do more to support sustainable solutions.

—Ken Campbell, ADM’s president of North America Oils, Biodiesel and Renewable Chemicals

When complete, the approximately $350-million complex in Spiritwood will feature state-of-the-art automation technology and have the capacity to process 150,000 bushels of soybeans per day. The construction of the new complex is supporting hundreds of jobs in the region, and the facility will employ approximately 75 people once operational. The Spiritwood complex is expected to begin production for the 2023 harvest.