senate and abr deal?

Good! Thanks!

Well, it's been nice knowing all of you. Keep your eye on the FOR SALE section.

I'll be leaving in March.

ABR got a no go...

13 voted Nay

2 voted Yay

Back to square one, if it even exists... :X

No square 1, Rowdy.

No plan B.

Unfortunately, people can't see the difference between a threat and information.

When Hovensa closed refining, people screamed about no notice.
When notice is given, they see it as a threat and being held hostage.

It's a sad day for St. Croix, for the VI as a whole.

I understand perfectly... That is why I wrote "...if it even exists," It is not like the refinery had a line of buyers... It is sad, frustrating, and infuriating at the same time...

It sure is. I had already decided to move if this deal failed, so I'll be spending next week sending out my resume. There aren't any jobs here for me or my family, so we are pulling up stakes and moving.

I think people felt as though DeJongh stood to benefit, and didn't trust his motives so they opposed it based on his involvement. Voters probably voiced opposition, and senators listened to their constituents. The opinion of the legislature's attorney probably had substantial influence.

How many of the remaining Hovensa employees are locals or registered voters? It would have been interesting to hear their opinions.

What is your definition of locals?

Wow! I'm surprised it didn't pass and by such a large margin of senators voting against it. I think only Buckley and Sanes voted for it.
I'm especially surprised since we have no contingency plan for fuel storage. It'll be interesting to see how that situation gets resolved.

Sorry to hear about your decision Cruzaniron. Good luck to you and your family.(tu)

I'll let the senators determine who they consider locals. Vocal, involved, registered voters would probably be my definition.

I have mixed feelings. The ABR deal didn't seem that great, and it did seem a bit shady, but there is NO deal otherwise.

So the refinery will continue to rust, the economy + real estate market will continue to stagnate and we will have to worry about whether the government or gas stations have any contingency plans for fuel storage.

Crikey!

Just last night at Art Thursday we were thinking odds were better than 50/50 of passing. I'm shocked at the outcome.

And with Cuba one step closer to opening it's doors we are now royally flushed.

Bah Humbug.

I wasn't optimistic, but still had hope...

How ironic that PDVSA's possible sale of their Citgo operations will be succesful (being handled by Lazard also...) and HOVENSA crashes and burns... A good number of heavy hitters went for that instead. Valero, HollyFrontier, Marathon, and Tesoro to name most of them... at the cool price of seven to ten billion $$$...

The window of opportunity is almost completely shot... Only a miracle can save it...

My stuff is at Sun-Self Storage, and two cars... maybe not for long now...

Is the Hovensa St Croix refinery the only one that isn't marketable? If so, why is that?

Is the Hovensa St Croix refinery the only one that isn't marketable? If so, why is that?

There are several reasons for that. I will mention three...#1 It uses fuel oil as its processing feedstock instead of LPG or CNG. The place will have to be converted to said fuels... There is no source of LPG or CNG near the refinery. #2 So they would have to build a storage facility for the new fuels and have it shipped there... #3 Once you shut down a refinery it is super difficult to sell it. HOVENSA needed to be on sale when it was still operational...

There is more, I just don't want to ramble on and on... I posted before that Marathon was interested in buying HOVENSA, but they decided to buy BP Texas City Instead.. That site doesn't have any of the problems I just listed...

Why isn't it marketable?

Ask your elected representatives. They have all the answers. They know better than everyone involved. They'll borrow another 100 million and fix everything.

And after seeing, once again, what it takes to NOT do business here, it's going to be pretty damn hard to attract anything sizeable.

Just opened my hospital bill. Not going to pay it.

Thanks, Rowdy. IMO, those issues should have been reported in news coverage, but unfortunately our news sources don't have sufficient resources to investigate all the issues, and few of them are trusted.

Many people get their "news" from the talk radio stations, but I think they are biased to stirring up controversy and though they may quote laws, documents, etc, they are selective and don't quote their sources usually. They claim to champion the masses, but I don't know trust their motives.

Any comment from ABR?

http://www.wsj.com/articles/st-croix-refinery-revival-awaits-tax-vote-1418949011

Pdmargie, I can't read the entire article since I don't have a subscription, so can you please summarize?

Interesting comparing comments on viconsortium.com and those on this forum.

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/st-croix-refinery-to-stay-closed-after-vote-20141219-00783

And
http://stthomassource.com/content/news/local-New/2014/12/19/senate-rejects-abr-refinery-plan

Pdmargie, I can't read the entire article since I don't have a subscription, so can you please summarize?

Interesting comparing comments on viconsortium.com and those on this forum.

Alana33: that's weird, I don't have a subscription either, but the entire article came up the first time I read it. Now I'm only able to read the first paragraph. It said the deal began when one of the principles oveheard a man talking about the refinery reopening when they were both in a Mexican restaurant in Connecticut. They struck up a conversation and ABR was born,......in a Mexican restrauant,......in Connecticut. Those two men are one of the 5 principles but I don't remember who and I can no longer read the article : (

I couldn't read it in its entirety, either, on your link.
Just the first few sentences.
I found the nasdaq and source links to post instead.

they have had over two years to figure out something and they wait for the very last minute to try and pass through something and are now upset when it does not pass. havnt they had other offers of any sort?

Speedy, Hovensa approved the sales contract and operating agreement many months ago, within the deadline of the 4th extension agreement. It took since then for the GVI to present it to the legislature.

No, the other offers withdrew. The Chinese withdrew after pre-bid meetings with GVI when it was made clear to them that they would not get the concessions they wanted.

But it's all good. The people get what they wanted (no operating refinery or storage terminal) and after 10 years or so of litigation, the GVI might actually end up owning a refinery. And since the cleaning over the last two years has met EPA requirements, the location cannot be declared a superfund site (free Fed money) and then the GVI can sell it for scrap.