Eight dairy digesters in eastern South Dakota are already making renewable natural gas. They sit in three clusters: Moody, near Dell Rapids; Brookings, near Estelline; and Lakeside, near Summit. California Bioenergy, Sevana Bioenergy, and UGI Energy Services built them through a venture called MBL Bioenergy. UGI put up the capital. Its subsidiary GHI Energy was the exclusive marketer on the 2022 and 2023 funding announcements.
On September 23, CalBio said it had completed, last month, the purchase of Sevana's interest in South Dakota Biogas LLC and had taken sole ownership of SD OpCo, the company that operates the projects. Sevana is out of that seat. CalBio holds the day-to-day. UGI is still named as an owner of MBL, alongside South Dakota Biogas. The release does not say the fuel, or the marketing contract, moved.
What Moved
South Dakota Biogas LLC had been a joint venture of CalBio and Sevana. CalBio bought Sevana's interest. In the same announcement it took sole ownership of SD OpCo. The September 23 text, carried by the American Biogas Council the next day, still describes MBL Bioenergy as held by South Dakota Biogas and UGI Energy Services. MBL was formed to develop and operate these eight projects, with room for more in the state.
The price is absent. So is the August day the deal closed. Sevana offers no reason for the sale. GHI Energy, named as exclusive marketer when the clusters were funded, is absent from the new release.
The output figure is a company claim, not a meter reading. CalBio says the three clusters are producing about 2 million standard cubic feet a day of renewable compressed natural gas, about 15,000 gasoline-gallon equivalents a day, about 5.5 million GGEs a year. Moody and Brookings send conditioned gas by gathering line to a central upgrader and a pipeline interconnect, Northern Natural Gas and NorthWestern Energy. Lakeside moves upgraded gas by tube trailer to a NorthWestern interconnect. Farmer contract length, and who holds the environmental attributes, are not in the release.
UGI's older figures were design targets, and GHI was the marketer. In May 2022 UGI said it would fund 100 percent of the first cluster, more than $70 million, aimed at about 300 million cubic feet a year. On January 4, 2023 it funded Brookings and Lakeside the same way, about $150 million, aimed at about 300 million and about 225 million cubic feet a year. The September daily claim is a different statistic. Nobody outside the company has confirmed it here.
Why The Developer Venture Ended
The clusters are past groundbreaking. In January 2023 UGI described Moody as already in construction and expected online in late 2023, and aimed Brookings and Lakeside at 2024. CalBio's September statement describes projects that are producing. It names no new dairy and no new cluster.
Sevana's job on the original MBL announcement was co-developer. Once the plants run, a two-developer venture sitting above a utility-funded project company can be closed without a sale of the gas. Buckenham, CalBio's chairman and CEO, stays inside that frame. He cites growth of participation, the UGI partnership, and the host dairies. He does not claim a purchase of UGI's interest.
Where The Control Sits
Three jobs sit on this fleet. One of them changed hands.
SD OpCo runs the projects. That job is now CalBio's alone. CalBio no longer shares the operating company, or the South Dakota Biogas vehicle, with Sevana. Sevana leaves a venture it helped start, at a price the parties have not published, and with no public account of what else it kept.
MBL Bioenergy is still the project vehicle. UGI Energy Services is still named in it. On the 2022 and 2023 record, UGI provided the disclosed capital, more than $70 million and then about $150 million, and placed marketing with GHI. The September release does not amend those points. The fuel and the buyer of the gas stay on the UGI side until a document says otherwise. Silence is not a transfer.
If the operating agreement is easy to end, sole ownership of SD OpCo is the staff and the farmer relationship. If the agreement is hard to end, CalBio sits between eight dairies and the utility that paid for the plants. The release does not show which contract is in force.
Who Else Already Runs Dairy Gas In The State
Brightmark RNG Holdings, a joint venture with Chevron, said on January 16, 2025 that it had delivered first gas at 10 Midwest projects. Local reporting places two of them on South Dakota dairies, Full Circle near Hurley and Mill Valley near Milbank. Those farms are not the CalBio eight. Chevron's venture owns and operates its own projects. The state already has a second model in the ground.
Clean Energy Fuels and Maas Energy Works broke ground in September 2025 on three facilities across six dairies in South Dakota, Georgia, Florida, and New Mexico. That release forecast about $80 million of cost, about 3 million gallons a year, and completion in 2026. Those projects put a second developer in the state a year before this buyout.
CalBio calls itself the largest U.S. producer of dairy-waste renewable gas, with more than 120 projects operating or in development. Peer developers describe their fleets the same way. This transaction does not settle that claim.
What Would Prove The Read
Over the next 12 to 36 months, the eight dairies have one developer as the daily counterparty, where they recently had two. The gas still has to reach a pipeline interconnect or a tube-trailer receipt point. The marketer named when the money went in was GHI.
The operating-control read fails if UGI replaces SD OpCo, or if a later disclosure shows the price was for a terminable services company and the environmental credits stayed with UGI. The read holds if marketing leaves GHI, if a published price looks like payment for the asset rather than for a co-developer's stake, or if CalBio signs the next South Dakota cluster with no co-developer beside it.
Sevana has taken the exit. CalBio has the operating seat. UGI has not, on the documents in hand, given up the fuel.