BOE
Caribbean refinery Limetree Bay Ventures sold the first oil product to a buyer in the Gulf Coast on Monday, according to a shipbroking source and Refintiv Eikon data, nearly a year after the long-shuttered facility was expected to restart, Reuters reported.
Oil major BP Plc took delivery of approximately 216,000 barrels of naphtha, a product used as a solvent as well as a raw material for conversion to gasoline, in Beaumont, Texas, on Monday, according to the data and source.
REUTERS/ALVIN BAEZ/FILE PHOTO An abandoned parking lot is seen outside the installations of the Hovensa petroleum refinery in St Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, June 28, 2017.
The refinery, located in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, is still struggling to bring certain units online that are necessary for production of cleaner fuels such as gasoline and diesel.
A spokeswoman from Limetree Bay declined to comment. BP did not respond to a request for comment.
The refinery’s owner, Limetree Bay Ventures, has spent at least $2.7 billion on the restart, hoping to tap rising demand for low-sulfur fuels and markets in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its goal is to process about 210,000 barrels of crude per day, but the COVID-19 pandemic has crushed refining margins globally.
