Personal bankruptcy choose approves $62 million Limetree Bay sale to Jamaican enterprise

Dec 21 (Reuters) – A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Tuesday accepted the $62 million sale of Limetree Bay refinery to a Jamaican oil storage organization that intends to restart the refinery.

Non-public fairness buyers experienced poured $4.1 billion into reviving the ageing U.S. Virgin Islands facility, which was shut down by U.S. environmental regulators right after a botched restart before this year. read through much more

West Indies Petroleum, together with Port Hamilton Refining and Transportation, was named the winning bidder on Saturday by Limetree immediately after a 2nd auction was performed over the weekend.

If the organization does not complete the sale in January, the refinery can be ordered by backup bidder St. Croix Electrical power LLLP, who elevated their bid from $20 million to $57 millionlast weekend.

At the refiner’s ask for, Choose David Jones reopened the auction in early December since the chief govt officer of West Indies Petroleum experienced a health care unexpected emergency prior to the 1st auction. St. Croix Energy objected to the next auction remaining held.

“This was the very first circumstance I could discover that I ever reopened an auction for any cause, and my conclusion today was that it was specifically the right decision,” Jones said on Tuesday.

“Issues which may possibly have been a little bit murky are now in the general public for all to see,” he included.

Both equally West Indies Petroleum and St. Croix Vitality want to restart the refinery, which is at the moment remaining investigated by the U.S. Division of Justice just after releases of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide for the duration of a restart in early 2021 sickened St. Croix inhabitants.

The Environmental Defense Agency filed a restricted objection on Sunday in order to set up “sale get language” with West Indies Petroleum developing environmental legal responsibility in the refinery’s consent decree.

The United States also sued Limetree Bay in July looking for injunctive relief under the Clean Air Act that consists of demanding the refinery to “do away with any imminent and significant endangerment to human wellbeing, welfare, and the natural environment prior to restart of refinery functions.”

Reporting by Laura Sanicola in New York
Modifying by Matthew Lewis and Sonya Hepinstall

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