Natural-Gas Station Operator Plans IPO

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. of Seal Beach, an operator of natural-gas filling stations co-founded by billionaire oil investor T. Boone Pickens Jr., filed to raise as much as $288 million in an initial public offering.

Clean Energy, which distributes natural gas for vehicle fleets in the United States and Canada, plans to use $50 million to $55 million from the IPO to build a liquefied natural gas plant in the western United States.

In its IPO prospectus, the company traced its roots to the 1980s, when Pickens “became convinced that natural gas had a number of advantages over gasoline and diesel as a vehicle fuel.” He currently holds a 73.3% stake.