Samsung E&A awarded hydrogen, power contract for DG Fuels’ St. James site

Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) producer DG Fuels has awarded the contract for its eSAF project in St. James Parish in Louisiana.

DG Fuels said the South Korean engineering firm will be contracted for the blue hydrogen, green hydrogen and power generation portions of the approximately $8bn eSAF project.

“We are extremely enthusiastic to enter into this commercial relationship with Samsung E&A, which has such a globally recognised expertise in energy plants. We look forward to expanding our relationship with Samsung E&A as we discuss further ways to collaborate and support this important project,” said Mike Darcy, chairman and CEO of DG Fuels.

The parties have already signed a term sheet, and Samsung E&A is expected to begin the front-end engineering design (FEED) for its dedicated portion of the project before the end of 2025. 

In its role, Samsung E&A will collaborate with Black & Veatch, which is the contractor for the balance of the project and is the overall integrator of the system’s component technologies. The two companies are also having preliminary discussions on potentially extending the relationship to follow on projects in Minnesota and Nebraska.

“The Samsung E&A team brings a wealth of expertise, experience, and important business relationships to our project with the potential of creating a broad strategic partnership for the large-scale deployment of critically important synthetic fuel,” added Chris Chaput, president and CFO of DG Fuels

DGF’s St. James Project, which will produce approximately 200m gallons of jet fuel per year, is targeting a final investment decision in the third quarter of 2026.

Earlier in December last year, Samsung E&A announced that it secured a $955m contract for the construction of the Petronas, Eni and Euglena biorefinery in Malaysia to produce SAF.