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Questions and

accusations plague

St. Croix refinery

auction

US VIRGIN AMID confusion and accusations of impropri-
ISLANDS ety in a recent auction to acquire the Limetree
Bay refinery on the island of St. Croix, a group
of known investors said this week that it remains
keen to assume ownership. While one of the auc-
tion’s joint winners issued a statement last week
saying that it had not purchased the facility, the
other confirmed it had.
The 176,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery,
formerly known as Hovensa, was established in
the 1960s and its capacity gradually expanded to
around 645,000 bpd. It was run by a joint venture
(JV) between Hess and Venezuela’s PdVSA, with
capacity falling to 500,000 bpd by 2010.
St. Croix Energy (SCE) – “formed by a group
of St. Croix residents to explore the possibility of
a safe and environmentally compliant restart” of
the refinery – won the first bankruptcy auction
with a bid of $20mn plus associated fees. How-
ever, the auction was reopened by Judge David
Jones of the US District Bankruptcy Court because of the alleged emergency circumstances
for the Southern District of Texas, to allow a regarding WIPL’s principle [sic], but ultimately
$30mn cash bid from West Indies Petroleum because the successful bidder was not WIPL.”
Ltd (WIPL). By the time the auction closed in He added: “Therefore, the auction was
December, the bid had risen to $62mn. improperly reopened for a bidder that should
Court documents, and a company press not have been permitted to bid at the reopened
release said in January that WIPL and partner auction.”
A group of Port Hamilton Refining and Transportation “We are disheartened to learn of the finan-
(PHRT) had been declared the winning bidders. cial and physical condition that the refinery is
known investors However, last week, Jamaica-based WIPL issued currently in. We still have a genuine belief that
said this week a statement to the contrary, saying it wished “to an environmentally compliant restart is in the
clarify that contrary to media reports it is not a best interest of the people of the Virgin Islands
that it remains stakeholder in the Limetree Bay refinery in St. and stand at the ready for any way we can help
Croix in the US Virgin Islands and was not the accomplish that,” the statement concluded.
keen to assume entity which purchased the refinery”. Meanwhile, PHRT issued its own statement
It continued: “Although an initial participant on Limetree Bay’s ownership, confirming that
ownership. in the early bidding process, due to legal factors WIPL is not involved. “The Limetree Bay Refin-
WIPL elected not to further pursue the initiative. ery was earlier this year successfully purchased
Those factors also constrained WIPL from com- by PHRT, as reflected in the bankruptcy court fil-
menting sooner about the inaccurate reports ings […] WIPL did not take title to the refinery.
in the media […] The sale of the Limetree Bay The refinery remains owned by Port Hamilton.
Refinery was successfully closed earlier this year Port Hamilton was the legal entity use to acquire
by Port Hamilton Refining and Transportation, the Limetree Bay Refinery in St. Croix and it also
which is a consortium of US and Caribbean is a separate legal entity from WIPL.”
based investors.” Despite taking ownership of the unit in Jan-
Following this, SCE’s legal representative uary, Limetree Bay Terminals (LBT) accused
Gregg Galardi released a statement on the group’s PHRT of failing to pay “its outstanding balance
behalf: “SCE believes that the statement issued for the shared services provided by LBT, which is
by WIPL demonstrates what we initially alleged currently over $5.6mn, which includes $1.15mn
– that the auction was reopened for WIPL not for fuel prepayments.”™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 26 30•June•2022