Essential Energy Holding, an Argentina-based biofuel group, is considering building a sustainable aviation fuel plant in the Republic of Ireland, potentially at the Foynes deep water port in Co Limerick, as reported by AVI-GO. Chief executive Federico Pucciariello, a former Munster rugby player, estimated the investment at 350 million to 400 million dollars (312 million to 360 million euros).

Pucciariello said the plant would directly employ around 200 people, with about 1,000 people involved in construction. He knows Limerick well from his Munster career.

Essential Energy Holding is an Argentina-based group of companies with experience in biofuel production, including first and second-generation fuels derived from vegetable oils and waste. In 2025 it created Santa Fe Bio with YPF, a venture for sustainable aviation fuel and hydrotreated vegetable oil backed by a 400 million dollar (356 million euro) investment, and its turnover and EBITDA are not publicly disclosed.

Pucciariello played for Munster between 2005 and 2009, a period that included two Heineken Cup victories. In April 2026 his company became Munster Rugby’s official biofuel solutions partner under a four-year agreement, as announced by Munster Rugby, supplying hydrotreated vegetable oil for matchday generators at Thomond Park.

The Irish Times reported that Essential Energy Holding already has plant designs and can fund the project. Foynes, the site of the first commercial transatlantic flights in the 1940s, already hosts an aviation fuel terminal that has supplied jet fuel since 2012, and the port sits close to Shannon Airport.

The structural driver is Ireland’s opportunity to produce its own sustainable aviation fuel. According to a feasibility study led by SkyNRG, a domestic industry could generate 2.55 billion euros in revenue by 2050 and provide up to 1,000 high-skilled jobs.

For the sector, the proposal shows an international biofuel group weighing a large sustainable aviation fuel investment in the Shannon Estuary region and Ireland’s wider aviation cluster.