HIF Global has raised $220m since the beginning of 2024 following an investment by Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL).
MOL is the third of HIF Global’s Japanese investors, joining oil & gas firms Idemitsu Kosan and Jogmec, which had respectively put $114m and $36m into the e-fuels project developer.
While Houston-headquartered HIF Global has not disclosed the exact amount MOL has brought to the table, it had in August announced it had raised $200m in total, suggesting up to $20m from the new investor.
MOL and Idemitsu Kosan had earlier this year signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate with HIF Global on the overseas supply chain for its projects in Australia, the US, Chile and Uruguay.
This would include the shipping of CO2 captured in Japan to these sites — although it is unclear whether additional emissions from the vessels on voyages across the Pacific Ocean would balance out any environmental benefit from using this carbon.
Other HIF Global investors include Porsche, Baker Hughes, AME, EIG, and Gemstone Investments.
The e-fuels developer had last year announced its first commercial shipment of synthetic gasoline produced at its pilot plant in Chile to Porsche in the UK.
Meanwhile, HIF Global’s project in Uruguay has recently been the centre of controversy, with the country’s government facing legal challenges over a lack of transparency around a memorandum of understanding signed with the developer.
