Limetree Bay restarts long-idled St Croix refinery
EIG Global Energy Partners-controlled Limetree Bay Ventures LLC has completed its long-planned restart of an idled refinery previously owned and operated by Hovensa LLC at Limetree Bay on St Croix, US Virgin Islands.
Now operated by Limetree Bay Refining LLC and equipped with a crude oil processing capacity of more than 200,000 b/d, the renovated refinery has officially resumed operations and started production as well as commercial sales of refined products, Limetree and EIG said in releases on the 1st February.
Configured to process a mix of feedstocks – including a growing supply of Latin American sour crudes – to fulfil rising demand for transportation fuels in the Caribbean, Central and South America, and the US East Coast, the newly commissioned refinery also will produce low-sulphur fuels which comply with International Maritime Organisation (IMO) mandates which took effect in 2020, according to Limetree.
“The restart of a refinery is a complicated endeavour, requiring a first-class team of employees and contractors and a collaborative partnership between business and government,” said Jeffrey Rinker, Limetree Bay’s chief executive officer.
“We have been able to restart operations due to the continued perseverance and efforts of our business partners, employees, investors and local government officials, overcoming challenges including Hurricane Maria and the [coronavirus (COVID-19)] pandemic,” Mr Rinker added.
Official start-up of the refinery’s crude processing and fuel production activities follows preliminary commissioning events in January which led to increased flaring and louder-than-usual noise levels at the site, according to a release from Limetree on the 14th January.
Commissioning of the revamped refinery follows key modernisation works at the site which began in 2018, including upgrades to a 62,000-b/d delayed coker unit, extensive desulphurisation capacity, and a reformer unit to enable production of clean, low-sulphur marine transportation fuels conforming to IMO 2020 standards.
Hovensa idled the San Croix refinery and transitioned the site into an oil storage terminal in early 2012 to prevent further financial losses resulting from what the then-operator termed the manufacturing site’s “competitive disadvantage.”
Source: Oil & Gas Journal