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In a separate statement, it said it had struck a reveal the terms of the deal, but it said that it had
new agreement on LNG deliveries to all five of secured all of the volumes it expected to need
its terminals in Mexico, Central America and until 2027.
the Caribbean region. All of NFE’s Brazilian facilities are expected
Additionally, it reported that it anticipated to be operational in 2022, and the company’s
wrapping up LNG supply deals for its four ter- new terminal in Nicaragua is slated to come on
minals in Brazil by the end of the year. It did not stream in August, it added. ™

US VIRGIN ISL ANDS
Limetree Bay Refining files for bankruptcy

LIMETREE Bay Refining, the owner of the
Limetree Bay refinery near St Croix in the US
Virgin Islands, has filed for bankruptcy.
The company submitted its Chapter 11 filing
in Houston earlier this week, shortly after the
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
revoked the oil-processing plant’s operating to cope with difficulties arising from the shutter-
permit. In a statement, Limetree Bay Refining ing of the refinery.
said it was taking this step because it had been The Limetree Bay refinery has a design
forced to suspend operations indefinitely in light capacity of 350,000 bpd (bpd). It was previously
of “severe regulatory and financial constraints.” owned by Hovensa, a joint venture set up by
The statement indicated that Limetree Bay Hess, a US-based independent, and Venezuela’s
Refining had filed a Chapter 11 suit, rather than national oil company (NOC) PdVSA. Hovensa
a Chapter 7 liquidation suit, in order to obtain shut the facility down in 2012 and then declared
the court protection necessary to begin nego- bankruptcy in 2015 before agreeing to sell it to
tiations with creditors and shareholders. This Limetree Bay Ventures the following year. Since
will allow the company to investigate asset sales, then, the plant has been used mostly as a storage
reorganisation and other options, it explained. and transhipment facility, with the tank farm
The firm has secured up to $25mn worth of and terminal operating separately from the
debtor-in-possession financing to facilitate this refining facilities.
process, it added. Limetree Bay Refining had intended to bring
Limetree Bay Refining is a subsidiary of 200,000 bpd of processing capacity back online
Limetree Bay Ventures, a company formed by by December 2019. However, it failed to meet
EIG Global Energy Partners and ArcLight Cap- that deadline and then encountered additional
ital Partners of the US. It took control of the delays in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus
refinery in 2016 but has not been able to achieve (COVID-19) pandemic.
its goal of bringing the plant back on stream. The company finally managed to move for-
The bankruptcy suit will not affect the opera- ward with the restart early this year but quickly
tion of the storage depot and terminal associated ran into problems, including the release of
with the refinery. Instead, Limetree Bay Ven- toxic liquids that subsequently rained down on
tures will keep these facilities running so that nearby neighbourhoods. These incidents led the
they can work with legal and financial advisors EPA to order the shutdown. ™

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Trinidad and Tobago’s gas output set to fall

GlobalData, a UK-based data analytics and after 2015, partly because of the successful
consulting company, has said it expects Trini- launch of new development projects. The
dad and Tobago’s natural gas production to start upswing is set to continue for the next couple of
declining after 2024. years as more new assets come on stream, it said.
In a report published last week, GlobalData These projects should ensure that production
noted that the Caribbean state had made up for levels rise by an average of 2% per year for the
some of the fall in output it began experiencing next three years, it added.

Week 28 15•July•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7