Page 6 - NorthAmOil Week 07 2023

NorthAmOil COMMENTARY NorthAmOil

What’s next for PHRT’s

Limetree Bay Refinery?

As the US EPA prepares to issue permits for the removal of

hazardous chemicals, USVI Governor Albert Bryan Jr. accuses

the agency of being politically motivated

US VIRGIN IN July 2022, US-based Port Hamilton Refin- that inspection and acknowledged that it had
ISLANDS ing and Transportation (PHRT) struck an opti- failed to meet OSHA’s standards with respect to
mistic note about the fate of the Limetree Bay fire prevention.
WHAT: Refinery, located on St. Croix in the US Virgin
PHRT is waiting for Islands (USVI), saying it hoped to restart the Removal permits
permission to remove plant within a year. PHRT was just a few months Amidst these setbacks, PHRT’s public shows
several caches of past its takeover of the facility from Limetree Bay of optimism about the possibility of restarting
improperly stored Ventures, a firm formed by EIG Global Energy the Limetree Bay refinery in mid-2023 have
chemicals left behind by Partners and ArcLight Capital Partners of the dimmed. However, the EPA has now indicated
the refinery’s previous US, and it was confident that it could bring that it is ready to move on to the next step. The
owners. 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) of the refinery’s agency is expected to issue the environmental
520,000-bpd capacity back on line by mid-2023. permits necessary to authorise removal of haz-
WHY: However, its upbeat attitude did not last ardous chemicals from the plant on February 15.
The permitting issue is long. In early August, an improperly stored To this end, the Virgin Islands Territorial
tied into a complex web of pile of petroleum coke left by the refinery’s for- Emergency Management Agency (VITEMA)
regulatory, political and mer owners caught fire. The blaze continued has established a task force with the St. Croix
economic controversies to smoulder at a relatively low level for several Local Emergency Planning Committee to over-
surrounding efforts to weeks but appears to have spread to the petcoke see the removal process. Daryl Jaschen, the
re-open the plant. conveyor loading system later in the month. director of VITEMA, announced on February
The incident caused the US Environmental 13 that the task force had arranged to work in
WHAT NEXT: Protection Agency (EPA), which had already cooperation with EPA, OSHA and PHRT to
Bryan’s invocation of US ordered the plant to suspend operations in May facilitate removal. The parties have been meet-
political battles is not 2021 after problems with a coking unit caused ing on a bi-weekly basis since last October, he
likely to support his call toxic liquids to rain down on nearby neighbour- added.
for compromise. hoods, to tighten its oversight of PHRT. In Octo- The EPA has described the removal of these PHRT’s public
ber, the EPA published a report noting that the chemical caches as a necessary preliminary to
facility was home to several more improperly the restart of the refinery. However, the agency’s shows of
stored chemical caches, including more than actions have drawn fierce criticism from Albert optimism about
40,000 pounds (18,140 kg) of anhydrous ammo- Bryan Jr., the governor of USVI.
nia and more than 37,000 pounds (16,800 kg) of the possibility
LPG. It also said it had ordered the company to Bryan’s political offence
remove all hazardous materials from the plant’s Bryan has accused the EPA of being more inter- of restarting
corroded infrastructure before they triggered ested in preventing the plant from ever coming
leaks or explosions. back on line than in guarding against pollution the Limetree
Then in mid-November, the agency said it and industrial accidents. During a visit to Wash- Bay refinery in
had instructed PHRT to secure a Prevention ington last week, he testified in front of the Senate
of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit. It Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, mid-2023 have
asserted that this step was necessary to ensure saying that he believed federal bureaucrats had
that polluters were held accountable and to pro- violated procedural rules by requiring the PSD dimmed.
tect the interests of residents of the marginalised permits.
communities near the plant. Following his appearance before the commit-
PHRT also came under fire from the US tee, he complained to the St. Thomas Source that
Occupational Health and Safety Administration the EPA had improperly postponed the issuance
(OSHA), which carried out an on-site inspec- of relevant permits and had revoked an already
tion of the refinery in mid-November. In early issued permit and criticised the agency for its
December, the company divulged the results of shutdown order in May 2021. This move, he

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