Page 4 - LatAmOil Week 07 2023

LatAmOil COMMENTARY LatAmOil

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

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

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