Did Exon Ink A deal for the Hovensa plant?

Hovensa Gets Extension on Sales Process
http://stthomassource.com/content/news/local-news/2014/08/16/hovensa-gets-extension-sales-process
By Source staff

The owners of the Hovensa refinery on St. Croix have requested an additional two weeks for discussions on aspects of the sales process established by the Fourth Amendment Agreement, Gov. John deJongh Jr. announced Friday in a statement from Government House. DeJongh said "the parties" have agreed to extend the sales process period until Aug. 30. The parties would include both the refinery owners – Hovensa LLC Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corp., and the Venezuelan group, PDVSA V.I. – and the government. The statement did not say what circumstances caused Hovensa to seek an extension of the agreement, but the news will add fuel to the rumors in both the V.I. community and the "Hovensa diaspora," former Hovensa workers now on the mainland, that a sale of the shuttered facility is in the offing. The Fourth Amendment is an agreement between the government and Hovensa, approved after much bitter debate and signed by the governor Nov. 7, that established a sales process for the closed Hovensa refinery. Under the terms of the agreement, it was to expire Aug. 15, but Hovensa and its owners have asked for and received the two-week extension. — August 16, 2014
The owners of the Hovensa refinery on St. Croix have requested an additional two weeks for discussions on aspects of the sales process established by the Fourth Amendment Agreement, Gov. John deJongh Jr. announced Friday in a statement from Government House.

DeJongh said "the parties have agreed to extend the sales process period until Aug. 30." The parties would include both the refinery owners – Hovensa LLC, Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corp., and the Venezuelan group, PDVSA V.I. – and the government.

The Fourth Amendment is an agreement between the government and Hovensa, approved after much bitter debate and signed by the governor Nov. 7, that established a sales process for the closed Hovensa refinery. Under the terms of the agreement, it was to expire Aug. 15, but Hovensa and its owners have asked for and received the two-week extension.

The governor's two-sentence statement did not say what circumstances caused Hovensa to seek an extension of the agreement, but the news will add fuel to the rumors in both the V.I. community and the "Hovensa diaspora," former Hovensa workers now on the mainland, that a sale of the shuttered facility is in the offing.

4th extension expires today

Extended until the end of the month!

I don't know who the other two are.

I had Chinese last night. It's always bad here.

They should just extend it until the end of the elections, because that's what were waiting on.

I stand corrected...

I have a bridge to sell you in London. Yawn.

Wake me up when you realize that the believers have been suckered. As I told you before, the deJongh fourth extension is a DETERRENT to the sale of Hovensa. And we signed away our rights to sue for breach of contract.

missjustice, i think that bridge was already sold to mccullough in arizona. do you have a bridge in new york maybe

We have a "bridge to nowhere" here in STT that the VI Gov. can sell you!

Looks like an agreement to sell the plant is close at hand. This very exciting news! St. Croix is about to get busy again!

If DeJunk can keep his hands in his own pockets, until he is shown the door, we should be in good shape. Unless they decide to backhand the new folks, the way they did the Captain.

the rumor is that an announcement is imminent.

Of course. The 2 week extension ends at the end of this month.

OPIS | Tuesday, August 26, 2014

A government-decreed period of negotiation on the HOVENSA St. Croix refinery in the Virgin Islands expired last week, but parties on both sides of the issue have agreed to extend the term for a possible sale to the end of August, according to local news reports in St. Croix.

It is not known whether any serious or spirited bidding took place on the once vibrant refinery and terminals that was jointly operated by Petroleos de Venezuela and Hess, but closed in 2012. Some companies in the mergers and acquisition sector are intrigued by the plant, since it is grandfathered to where foreign-flagged vessels can be used to transport oil to and from the facility. The mysterious "sales process" is being conducted by the Virgin Island government and HOVENSA.

An investment banking firm was retained to look for potential buyers of the plant, while HOVENSA operates some of the tanks at the huge facility for petroleum storage.

Some refinery experts believe that the Caribbean plant could possibly be reconfigured as a smaller facility that could run condensate or some of the very light sweet crude coming to the Texas Coast. However, the refinery is hurt by the lack of natural gas on the island, and would require major work to use other hydrocarbons as the means of heating boilers for the refining process.

There is also speculation that the terminal could be attractive as a gasoline- blending facility. A Customs Department ruling in March suggested that unfinished gasoline components could be moved offshore to tank farms in the Bahamas, and then could be imported via cheap foreign-flag tankers, if that blending resulted in a "change of class" for the product.

However, several companies who have sought similar rulings from Customs say that they are seeing little progress in getting new specific rulings on blending gasoline offshore. Parties owning or leasing Jones Act vessels have staged an extensive lobbying effort against the practice.

The suspense is killing me! Thanks for posting!

My clairvoyant thought. The original high bidder walked away after being subjected to the normal rude ignorant behavior of our Senate. The second bidder is used to dealing with toxic sludge, recognized that our Senate can be classified as such, and will emerge victorious.

The list of buyers with solid "piggy banks" is very short... This a list of possible candidates... Mind you, it is all speculation on my part...

Exxon-Mobil
Petro China
Petronas
ARAMCO/ Shell Royal Dutch partnership (This one is weak as it has had plenty of issues at the Motiva Refinery in Texas, the largest refinery in the USA)

Mostly out of the running.. MPC was interested and looked into Hovensa... They decided to go with a much better purchase, the BP Texas City Refinery.. They did, whoever, purchase the Hess Oil Gas Stations, 1,256 of them in 16 states, for "only" 2.4 billion $$$... Speaking of BP, they are trying to get out of the US market... Valero has shrunk quite a bit and is no longer that strong... Chevron has had too many incidents and is not interested in buying another ticking time bomb... Petrobras is already selling P.R.S.I. in Texas.. They bought it at five times the actual value which promted and inquiry and landed a few in jail...

Chemical manufacturers could be intersted in converting the site... i.e. Dupont, PPG, BASF, etc...

By the way, Hovensa doesn't need the 4th amendment to sell the site... They can sell whenever they feel like to whoever they want to...

Only time will tell...

Herb Schoenboem posted this on Facebook last night:

News Flash....Chinese (Petrochin) walked away from Hovensa purchase agreement after claiming they were insulted by the Vi Senate reps involved in the back room negotiations. The governor said to them...hold on...and some insiders claim he is saying that he has ways of giving them what they want during a lame duck Senate session after the November election when senators are past facing the voters. Here we go again! Don't tell me this has not happened before in the VI. tune in to Let's Talk on Thursday 9-11am for more details were I will be hosting the show.

Its doubtful that he has any proof to corroborate his statement but it might make for interesting radio this morning!

Without access to NG, I think its a long shot. There's a butane/Methane tank on site, might be able to add additional storage or maybe get some type of PPP to open an LNG offload facility

I would guess there's more interest in using the site as an oil terminal over anything else

Lame Duck Sessions - Anything goes including giving themselves raises as the did in the past. It's a "free for all" (literally) especially with their special interests.

HOVENSA requests 2nd extension for sales process

By JOY BLACKBURN (Daily News Staff)
Published: August 30, 2014

ST. CROIX - The owners of HOVENSA have requested another extension on the sales process period, which is the time frame when their shuttered refinery on St. Croix's South Shore is to be up for sale and is laid out in their agreement with the V.I. Government.

Attorney George Dudley, local counsel for HOVENSA, Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corp. and PDVSA, said Friday that his clients had requested more time for the sales process period from Gov. John deJongh Jr.

However, Dudley declined to answer questions about the length of the requested extension until the governor has made a decision.

The Fourth Amendment Agreement between the V.I. Government and HOVENSA originally set up a period when the refinery would be for sale that only lasted through Aug. 15 - but the parties agreed to a 15-day extension, which expires today.

Government House spokesman Jean Greaux Jr. said Friday afternoon that he did not know what the plan was moving forward or whether an extension is in the works. He said he would check.

Later, though, Greaux sent a text message saying that no information would be forthcoming Friday night.

Dudley said that the sales process is "ongoing" but declined to be more specific about the stage the process is in or about whether there were interested buyers at this point.

"I'd do the community a disservice by speculating, so I'm going to say the process continues," Dudley said.

HOVENSA spokesman Alex Moorhead on Friday said the company had no comment on the sales process

Hey Gov - Before you pardoned Chucky, did you ever think how that move would be perceived by potential buyers for Hovensa? Gee, if you'd overturn a legally binding court decision by the highest Territorial Court for someone like Chucky, what would you do when there are potentially BILLIONS on the line? Little wonder potential Hovensa buyers are highly skeptical of the Virgin Island "Government"...

Chucky voted for the extension.
He needs her vote for the agreement with the new buyer.
He just bought it.

The latest rumor is that Sinopec has agreed to most of the terms (incl. assumption of the EPA liability, cost plus fee to local government) but is sticking to its requirement that it have >80% of its own Chinese workforce. The deal wouldn't be announced until after the election, because prior to it will cause political upheaval. Chucky Hansen is integral in getting the deal passed in the Legislature after the election...

The Gov is in New Jersey meeting with Hess today.

Lets hope he comes home with good news!

Call me naive, but as we are an American territory, wouldn't you need to be a citizen, resident alien, or have a work visa to legally work here. How would 80% of their work force qualify for work visa's from the feds when we have (est.) 15% local unemployment?

Call me naive, but as we are an American territory, wouldn't you need to be a citizen, resident alien, or have a work visa to legally work here. How would 80% of their work force qualify for work visa's from the feds when we have (est.) 15% local unemployment?

Need to be what!

Have you not been paying attention to the news for the past 6 months?
60,000+/- people have come across the border without a visa, work permit and are being welcomed with open arms. They are being flown around the country to their new homes. There kids are now going to school and the local jurisdictions are paying for it and struggling with the culture and language issues. A few Chinese working at the refinery is a proverbial 'drop in the bucket'!

Of course, they will be given a difficult time because they are actually going to contribute something to our society.

.