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Nature Energy, the Danish company that is bringing biogas projects to Minnesota and Wisconsin, is being bought by the Shell petroleum corporation.
In the deal announced Monday, Nov. 28, Shell will pay $2 billion to buy Nature Energy.
As Agweek reported earlier this month, Nature Energy is in the process of setting up manure-to-energy plants in Benson in central Minnesota and Wilson in the southeast. Nature Energy plans to start construction in Benson and Wilson next year. The company is working on plans for a third location in Roberts, Wisconsin, just across the St. Croix River from Minnesota. It also plans a facility in Quebec, Canada.
Nature Energy owns and operates 14 industrial scale biogas plants and has been expanding rapidly in the past five years and has plans for about 30 plants across Europe and North America, the company said in a news release. It has about 400 employees worldwide.
The Minnesota and Wisconsin plants would be designed to mostly use manure from dairy farms but other manure and organic waste could be use to create natural gas for heating homes and other uses. After the gas is harvested, the company would return organic material, which can be used as fertilizer, to farmers.
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Nature Energy had previously been owned by a group of investors. It will become part of Shell Petroleum NV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell. The news release said the deal will "support Shell's ambition to profitably grow its low carbon fuels production."
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.
