MADRID - Spanish oil and gas company Repsol REP.MC will build an advanced biofuels plant at its refinery in Cartagena, southeastern Spain, at a cost of 188 million euros ($222 million), Chief Executive Josu Jon Imaz said on Thursday.

Repsol's head of industrial business and trading, Juan Antonio Carrillo, also told a virtual news conference that the company expects the plant to be operational in the first half of 2023.

With fuel demand crushed by the COVID-19 pandemic and tightening environmental rules prompting companies and countries to cut carbon emission, owners of some oil refineries in Europe and the United States are converting plants to produce cleaner biofuels. 

Repsol was an early mover in a wave of oil and gas companies pledging to cut climate-warming carbon emissions from its operations and most of its products to net zero by 2050.

The new plant will produce fuels from recycled raw materials to be used in aircraft, trucks and cars, Imaz said. ($1 = 0.8461 euros)

(Reporting by Isla Binnie Editing by David Goodman ) ((isla.binnie@thomsonreuters.com; +39 06 8522 4392; Reuters Messaging: isla.binnie.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))