Refinery Sold, per Senator Nelson

I'm not really concerned with how or who they get to open the refinery, just get it done.

Don't hold your breathe!

They'll have lot's more blah, blah, blah before all is said and done plus they'll find some way to screw you while doing so.

Good Luck.

Alana, I'm sure that you don't care since an open refinery would not benefit you.

But for the hundreds that can benefit, let them remain hopeful.

It will definitely benefit my business and employees.

Y'all have fun now!
I really do hope for the best but you should keep track of who is doing is what to whom and what the costs are going to be before you see a penny.
Blah, blah........................ and more of the SOS.
Have at it .

Y'all have fun now!
I really do hope for the best but you should keep track of who is doing is what to whom and what the costs are going to be before you see a penny.
Blah, blah........................ and more of the SOS.
Have at it .[/quote

It is about JOBS, not tax breaks. Give them 100% break and the jobs will supply the stimulus.

 

Y'all have fun now!
I really do hope for the best but you should keep track of who is doing is what to whom and what the costs are going to be before you see a penny.
Blah, blah........................ and more of the SOS.
Have at it .

It is about JOBS, not tax breaks. Give them 100% break and the jobs will supply the stimulus.

Exactly.

Alana, most people go to work every day to take care of their families, the WORK alone is what is needed, who cares about the taxes.. if they come they come, great... but bring the jobs first!

If we were worried about taxes then we wouldn't have burned $1,800,000.00 in potential tax revenue and wasted thousands of dollars doing it.

I heard Buckley and Sanes on the radio today saying that the agreement should include the buyer fixing the hospital to upgrade it to 'modern' status, adding a burn unit, and funding a cancer registry.

These guys are determined to chase a buyer away.

These guys are determined to chase a buyer away.

Oh ya. They will screw it up in such a spectacular fashion that people will be in awe of them...until they realize that our government did it to us again

Just sharing... If anybody cares...

Potential HOVENSA Refinery Restart Could Save Depressed Tanker Market
OPIS | Monday, September 29, 2014

The refinery was operating at less than 200,000 b/d prior to its shutdown in early 2012, well below its maximum of 500,000 b/d, sources told OPIS then.

Sounds good to me.

And in other news... Turner STX Maint has a renewed business license

Weekly Tanker report.
Very interesting!!!!

http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/WeberWeekly39-14.pdf

Weekly Tanker report.
Very interesting!!!!

http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/WeberWeekly39-14.pdf

retooling to process 350,000 b/d of light crude... not bad at all, that's a bit over half of what the alaskan pipeline produces daily.

Another view on the economics driving the pending sale of Hovensa to a private equity firm...

‘Zombie’ Hovensa refinery could live again due to shale
in General Energy News 06/10/2014

The mothballed Hovensa refinery, once the largest in the Western hemisphere, could be the latest “zombie refinery” to come back to life, revived by the U.S. shale boom.
Hess Corp and Venezuela’s state-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) have found an interested buyer for their 350,000 barrel per day (bpd) Hovensa refinery in the Virgin Islands, sources close to the deal told Reuters on Wednesday, confirming a local news report that said the plant would use U.S. crude.
Refining at the plant has been halted since 2012, but its owners have been using it as a terminal. The Virgin Islands government has sought a buyer who will return the plant to its former status as an active refinery, according to a person familiar with refinery sales.
The identity of the buyer was not known, but sources told Reuters it would be a private equity firm. PDVSA declined to comment and Hess was not immediately available to comment.
Cheap U.S. crude and natural gas, available because of the shale boom, have created an advantage for U.S. refiners who have access to relatively inexpensive feedstock needed to fill refineries and a cheap furnace fuel to power them.
A four-decade ban on exporting U.S. crude has made it lucrative to produce gasoline, diesel and other refined products domestically, which can then be exported legally.
Restarting Hovensa on an island considered to be part of the United States could be a bet on the law remaining in place, even as it is being hotly debated from Texas to Washington.
Several “zombie refineries” on the East Coast have been restarted or saved from shutdown, according to Paul Sankey at Wolfe Research who coined the term, since the start of shale revolution.
Zombies that have reopened include the Delaware City refinery, which PBF Investments bought and restarted in 2010 after Valero shut it down, and the idled 185,000 barrel-a-day Trainer, Pennsylvania, refinery rebooted by Delta Airlines in 2012.
Hovensa’s ability to benefit from plum U.S. refining conditions might prove more challenging, according to industry analysts and consultants. Hovensa is oil-fired and does not benefit from vast U.S. gas fields.
DOMESTIC CRUDE, FOREIGN SHIPS
Using cheap light sweet crudes from booming U.S. producing regions such as the Eagle Ford in Texas could be profitable, but also a challenge, because Hovensa was configured to run heavy Venezuelan and other foreign crudes.
“There’s no technical reason why you couldn’t process U.S. crude at that refinery,” said Neil Earnest, president of consultancy Muse Stancil.
But the input to the refinery would be reduced by more than 10 percent, Earnest said. Additionally, he cautioned that there would be significant costs associated with purchasing enough oil to restart the refinery, restaff it, and address any issues that had cropped up at the shuttered facility.
“The state of the process units likely varies,” he said.
Certain units, which were mothballed several years ago are probably in worse shape than those that were shut in 2012. The restart would take more than a few months, even under the best conditions, Earnest added.
A lighter diet would imply partially restarting the refinery, but not specialized units such as the delayed coker and the fluid catalytic cracker, traders said.
Hovensa had been buying up to 115,000 bpd of Venezuelan heavy Merey 16 and 155,000 bpd of medium Mesa 30 through long-term supply contracts. It also used to buy West African crudes.
The buyer would also need to sign agreements with several U.S. producers to guarantee a 200,000 to 300,000 bpd crude supply and meet the goal of reaching 350,000 bpd of processing, the same volume it was running when it was shut.
“I think the refinery can be profitable running cheap light crude, even if it operates at only 50 percent to 60 percent of its full capacity,” said one person familiar with the plant.
Hovensa can process a maximum of 500,000 bpd.
And shipping the U.S. crude to the islands might be less costly than sending it to foreign plants.
The Virgin Islands are not considered to be a “coastwise point” and are specifically exempt from the Jones Act, a shipping restriction that requires ships to be U.S. built, owned and crewed, said one lawyer with expertise in maritime affairs.
Charter rates have soared for the limited fleet of Jones Act vessels, making them around three times more expensive than foreign-flagged ships. But shippers would be able to use cheaper, more plentiful foreign-flagged ships to transport the crude.
The lawyer also pointed out that bringing crude to Hovensa and shipping refined products back to the United States would not require Jones Act vessels since the oil would have been processed into a “new and different product” at the refinery.
In the late 1970s, the refinery was at the center of a court case, American Maritime Association v. W. Michael Blumenthal, which questioned whether the Jones Act applied to U.S. oil refined or otherwise processed at an intermediate point before being brought back to the United States.
The lawsuit was successful and Hess was permitted to bring crude oil from Alaska to the Virgin Islands on foreign-flagged ships.
It is not immediately clear if shippers would need to obtain a license under the U.S. crude oil ban to ship domestically produced oil to the U.S. territory.
Alaska, which has an exception to the crude oil export ban, used to ship small amounts of crude to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico before oil output started falling. According to Energy Information Administration records, the U.S. last sent oil to St. Croix in 1997.
Source: Reuters (Reporting By Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York, Marianna Parraga in Houston, Tim Gardner in Washington D.C., and Anna Louie Sussman in New York; Editing by Josephine Mason)

The latest news...

http://viconsortium.com/virgin-islands-2/hovensa-sale-in-place-senators-to-meet-with-governor-on-monday/

This is great news for St. Croix!

Hi all, I don't post on the forum but I stumbled upon this website for what it's worth. Apparently the company purchasing is called Atlantic Basin Refining. Here is their brand new not yet completed website.

http://dbkandh.com/2014/10/

Well, there you go... now where can I find a job in 24 months.... haha

Processing light sweet crude means commercial gasoline will be a product... we should see a steep dive in fuel prices, right?

Pending ratification of the 30th Legislature of the Virgin Islands, Atlantic Basin Refining Holdings, LLC (“ABR”) has reached an agreement to acquire Hovensa, LLC, inclusive of the Hovensa Refinery and all related contracts and assets, and has reached agreement with the Government of the Virgin Islands as to the terms and conditions of operation of the Hovensa Refinery.

Once reconfigured, the Refinery will be a “state of the art” mid-complexity refinery with no catalytic cracking or coking operations. Processing U.S. light sweet crude oil increases refinery flexibility, clean fuels yield and profitability while reducing power demand, fuel use and emissions.

Reconfiguration of the Refinery will take approximately 24 months. Upon restart, the Refinery will support at least [500] full-time positions and hundreds of subcontractors. As a true Virgin Islands company, ABR is excited to work with the St. Croix and Virgin Islands communities to build a mutually beneficial long-lasting relationship. Under ABR’s ownership, Hovensa, LLC will foster a motivational refinery culture that will reward safety, excellence, teamwork, community service and entrepreneurial spirit.

Configured to Process 300,000 BPD of U.S. Light Sweet Crude, Valued at $10 Billion Annually

Primary Products Include Gasoline, Ultra-Low Sulfur Jet and Diesel Fuel

Supports at Least 500 Full-Time Positions and Hundreds of Subcontractors

Increases USVI GDP by $300 million to $500 million

Generates $100 Million of Additional Tax Revenue

http://dbkandh.com/

It appears to be an unfinished website. I don't think they meant it to go live.

They didn't. The correct domain is www.abr.vi but its not up yet.

Makes one wonder if they are on the up and up, why they don't already have a website with a substantial history of businesses, performances and officers/directors.

Don't want to rain on your parade, St. Croix but we do know that our government has a history of entertaining deals with those of dubious character, backgrounds and performance (and lack, thereof).

This announcement coming so close to elections, just seems a bit too coincidental. I will wish for the best for everyone while taking a "wait and see" position.

Alana, there's nothing wrong with being skeptical, but when you have dealings like this that can affect the global economy, you don't show your hand on the first deal.

Want to speculate how many major oil companies are now going to try to get this deal quashed so they don't have the additional competition? The same major oil companies that would not bid on it, hoping it would rust away? Money will be flowing into the pockets to buy votes against the deal. You can bet on that.

Good point, CI. Hadn't considered that.

Somewhere I saw reference to a press conference with Sanes and someone else this afternoon. Now I cant find it. does anyone know? Radio station and time?