Province St. Croix Operator Hovensa LLC | City Christiansted Commissioned 1966 (1966) | |
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Country United States Virgin Islands Owner(s) Hess Corporation, Petroleos de Venezuela | ||
Hovensa st croix virgin islands end of an era
Hovensa (known also as St. Croix Refinery) was a petroleum refinery located on the island of St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. The refinery was a joint venture between Hess Corporation and Petroleos de Venezuela. For most of its operating life as HOVENSA it supplied heating oil and gasoline to the U.S. Gulf Coast and the eastern seaboard with the crude mainly sourced from Venezuela. Previously it had sourced its crude feedstock from a number of other countries including Libya. At a capacity of about 500,000 barrels per day (79,000 m3/d) as of 2010 it was in the top 10 largest refineries in the world.
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Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corporation started refinery construction in January 1966 having purchased the property from Annie de Chabert and, in October of the same year, the refinery started operating. In 1974, the capacity of refinery was expanded up to its peak at 650,000 barrels per day (103,000 m3/d). Hovensa LLC, which took over the refinery operatorship, was established in 1998.
In January 2011, Hovensa paid a $5.3 million penalty for Clean Air Act violations. On January 18, 2012 the company announced that it would close the refinery by mid-February 2012. The company sought to close the refinery and have the property serve as only a storage terminal.