The 500,000 barrels a day (b/d) HOVENSA oil refinery in St Croix, US Virgin Islands will be shut down. One of the 10 largest refineries in the world and the largest in the Caribbean, the plant was a joint venture between the Hess Corporation and Petroleos de Venezuela SA. Hess cited weakness in demand for petroleum products due to the global economic slowdown and the addition of new refining capacity in emerging markets as factors leading to the shutdown. The St. Croix refinery has a 435,000b/d hydrotreating capacity, a 140,000b/d fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit, a 105,000b/d semiregenerative catalytic reforming unit, a 55,000b/d delayed coking unit and a 37,000b/d visbreaking unit. It was due to undergo a major overhaul of its operations in Q111. The company also said that the low price of natural gas in the United States had placed HOVENSA at a “competitive disadvantage.” Other options were explored in an attempt to keep the refinery in operation, but financial losses “left it with no other choice.”
Equipment will be closed-in by mid-February, although the company will continue to provide fuel to the island’s Water and Power Authority until the end of June. After the shutdown, the refining complex will continue to operate as an oil storage terminal.