NATCHEZ — KiOR announced Thursday official plans to move forward with its Columbus II facility.

After announcing in mid-2012 plans to build a cellulostic fuel production facility in Natchez that would create 320 direct or indirect jobs, KiOR said one of the necessary first steps would be to get its Columbus facility — which was under construction at the time  — into production.

The Columbus facility began shipping fuel in March.

In August, KiOR Chief Executive Officer Fred Cannon said the company was considering building a second facility in Columbus before moving forward with Natchez because shared infrastructure and personnel could reduce construction time and help the company achieve cash flow profitability more quickly.

Cannon said Thursday that the Columbus II project could ultimately help the company finance the Natchez project.

“We believe that the Columbus II project also enables KiOR to continue to execute on our long-term business plan, consisting of larger, standard scale commercial production facilities,” he said.

“In parallel with the Columbus II project, we plan to accelerate our efforts to refine the design, based on the newest technology improvements, of our next standard scale commercial production facility, currently planned for groundbreaking in the second half of 2014 in Natchez.

“As a result of these additional efforts, we would expect to improve both the capital and operating cost profiles of the planned Natchez facility against the estimates outlined in our last earnings call. We believe these improvements to both capital and operating costs will enable us to attain financing for the planned Natchez facility on terms more favorable to KiOR and less dilutive to its shareholders.”