Clean Energy Fuels Inc., the Seal Beach company backed by legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens, has started building a liquefied natural gas plant in the Mojave Desert, the company said Thursday.
The company, which provides natural gas for trash trucks, taxis and other fleet vehicles, expects to start shipments from the plant in second half of 2008.
Clean Energy hopes the plant will meet demand for cleaner fuel by state regulators and at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Chief Executive Andrew Littlefair said.
The company expects the plant to produce 160,000 gallons of natural gas per day, then grow to 240,000 gallons per day.
Clean Energy is building the plant with proceeds from its May initial public offering, which raised $120 million.
The company’s public offering fell short of expectations.
Early on, company officials hoped to raise as much as $345 million to build its natural gas plant, add fueling stations, buy natural gas vehicles for sale to customers, as well as for general purposes.
The company’s shares are flat from their debut with a $540 million market value at recent check.
Pickens is Clean Energy’s principal shareholder, founder and a director. He started Clean Energy as a tiny part of Dallas-based Mesa Petroleum in the late 1980s. He split it off in the late 1990s.
