The HOVENSA oil refinery in St Croix, US Virgin Islands, will be shut down, the company announced today.
The refinery, which is one of the 10 largest in the world and the largest in the Caribbean, is 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.
Sometimes we have to see the good in the bad. Of course this is terrible for St. Croix, and may actually stem from the huge lose that Hess experienced in the Gulf a couple years ago. However, St. Croix has been the lesser desirable of the Virging Islands. It clocks in far less tourists than it’s siblings St. Thomas, St. Johns, even it’s step sister Tortola.
This could have possible be due to the fear of the emissions of these huge refinery towers, which are the most dominant on their landscape.
There are quite a few people and businesses which will suffer from the closures including the banks, credit unions, and families all here in Dominica and neighboring islands.
It is truly hard to see the good, especially when the bad will be immediately felt. But every dissappointment is a blessing in disguise. St. Croix, with help from international aid, and US subsides, will be able to pick up, reinvent, and repackage herself. They will rise above this.
I know this refinery pretty well. It’s the first one I ever laid eyes on. It’s sad for those who are losing their jobs. It’s tough everywhere these days.
This is a bad blow to entire family. I know
what am talking about. Is only who in the
kitchen feeling the heat.
I heard that they doubled security at the gates and are blocking entrances with vehicles in the driveway. And so for the employees they plan to keep on, maybe most will be armed security.
Who Cause That and Who Is To Be Blamed?Wonder if such a situation was to happen in DA,where the livelihood of the majority of the people in the country was to come to such a sudden and sad end,what would be the TALK ON Q!( THE ADMISTRATION IN POWER?)Man SKERRO AND THE DLP WOULD HAVE NO PLACE TO HIDE.IT WOULD BE BLOWS AND BLOWS AND BLOWS… I feel your pain CRUZANS but blame no one,we are in a Global ecomonic situation.
i feel sad for the workers who are going to loose their jobs. I know what it feels like cause its been almost three yrs since i’ve been made redundant from work and I am still employed cause there’s no employment in the country. sigh…sigh! in spite of it all don’t give up hope.
that is some really sad news..i used to work there and i know the amount of people that place employs..that will be a devastating blow for st croix and many of the surrounding islands.
This is real sad….Hess is closing down and compounded with that the government is planning on sending home over 1000 workers by the end of this month. A lot of people are going to be affected whether directly or indirectly.
There’s both good and bad coming out of this deal. Good for the health of the community at large, but it’s mostly going to negatively affect a lot of lives that depend on the refinery for sustainment.
>>Good for the health of the community at large
Aside from the starving part.
Maybe handling the substance abuse, social woes and violence that accompanies poverty would be better thing to address in the short term. 5 murders in STX so far this year, one an old man dutch historian writer just to loot his house and steal his car.
Dem I loot, dem I shoot, dem I wail.
ftl
Wow, what a shame. This will certainly impact Dominica given the number of Dominicans who are employed at that facility The remittances from St. Croix will dry up and many Dominicans in St. Croix (who could easily hop over for a weekend or a funeral etc) will go further afield to seek a better life. There will be employment implications here too. The small staff at ‘Coastal Air” which operates a twice weekly air/cargo service between Dominica and St. Croix may have to be reduced further as a result of dwindling business between St. Croix and Dominica. The farmers who ship even if its a small amount of products to St. Croix may also be impacted. We are all in it one way or another.
So we Dominicans must take note. So far we are not doing too bad as a country. These rae difficult times. Therefore, those who say they can do better and challenge the world reality fromour bases inMarigot or Morne Daniel must present specific details of the “HOW”. What is it can they do better locally to help Dominica ride out the international financial crunch without too much difficulty more than what we presently are experiencing. They must be held to task and we should not accept any wide brushes of pure promises – I will do this and I will do that. Some details please.
Not because you are supportive to one political party who you are so convinced have all the solutions to our problems means the bases in Marigot or Mourne Daniel cant do better.
@ Observer
No details necessary. The people have placed the govt. office with 18-3 margin. let then do thier work. We don’t need advice/details from the people on the sidelines. Allow the duly elected people to do thier ting. Since when you know the tail does wag the dog. Oppositin does not set policy nor execute any plan of governance only a sitting govt. can do that. So please allow the highly popular incumbant govt to do thier work. With 18 ministers plus advisors they don’t need the ideas of opposition gripers on how to move the economy.
18-3
more hard timez for people on planet earth.things not getting easier at all so people donot expect milk and honey those days are long gone and will never ever return.
All this after government retrenchment? This is a disaster.
this is going to impact not only the employees but their families & dependents.this may well cripple the work force on STX if proper planning wasn’t thought out.As I type I feel their pain and pray to GOD that something better surfaces from the rubble when the dust settles.I however am directly affected by this my cousins , friends and others who all work there.Hold strong and keep faith that god is the Ultimate gatekeeper, he has the keys and locks to all gates and untill his will is not done with you have FAITH.
You are so right God never gives his children more than they can handle.
god help the workers who have their morgages to paid
700 million in EPA mandated clean air upgrades and other existing local contracts probably made it a bad deal. Here is hoping it comes back soon in new hands and can put the people back to work. There is a lot of factoy there to just leave idle and then only use the dock and the tanks. Those jobs may not seem like much, only a couple of percent of the population of the territory, but they were good paying steady jobs for people with families and the impact will be very hard.
Obama is willing to lend billions to Brazil to drill, but his EPA is against the refinery in St Croix
Who is Obama again???
Mr Obama and his band of leftwing idealogues are proving to be quite disastrous to the economy in the U.S. and it’s territories! They are constantly yap-yapping about ending our dependence on “foreign oil”. Yet, they are fighting tooth and nail to avoid any drilling in the U.S! He has vowed to veto the authorization of the Keystone pipeline, which would deliver oil from Canada to the U.S. THE BRO MUST GO!!!!
For some strange reason I just don’t believe the story being promoted by the owners. There seem to be some other reasons much more sinister at this time.
In reality many refineries world wide are not producing. Nigeria, and Iran for example are net crude producers which once did thier own refining, but now have to import externally refined oil due to lack of local refining capacity. this indicates that there is a demand for refining capacity.
I think the contract for IDC benefit expires this year. Where they pay a minimum tax.
and actually that is the feeling among done people living in St. Croix….. seems to be a thing done in the past and we just might see them back after tax season
once the big boys not making money they just pull out and on to the next ting.. no concern for the little man and his family
i smell something fishy about the reason why they closing down… open your eyes ppl… Petroleum and its products are the only things which seem to be having a hike in price…
VERY SORRY FOR ST. CROIX WITH THIS DEVASTING
NEWS.
PLEASE LETS PRAY FOR OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS
IN ST. CROIX CAUSE ITS A VERY BAD NEWS TO
THEM. IT WILL AFFECT US IN DA BECAUSE THERE’S
ALOT OF DOMINICANS WORKING ON THE REFINERY.
GOD PLEASE HELP THEM IN ST.CROIX.
what is amazing is,while america and chavez are at lugger heads,venezuela has a joint oil venture on US soil,this leaves me wondering,is this a US checkmate move.
lol. St. Croix closing oil refinery and Dominica had plans to open one last time i checked.
When ppl finish they saying thank God for skerrit. everything is for a time. oil refinerys and prime ministers too . lmao
I RESIDE IN FLORIDA BUT I HAVE FAMILY IN STX AND ST.T,SO CAN U IMAGINE THE EFFECT THIS WILL HAVE ON EVERYTHING…WOW…….SO I AM OPTAMISTIC THAT SOMEONE WILL BUY IT AND TURN THINGS AROUND……EEEEHHH BEEEEHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I feel so sad about this,but hopefully some ARAB or Mideastern country will buy, as you can see these are the last days of the BIBLE people…the world will run by one person one currency one ruler in the MIDEAST…READ YOUR BIBLE PPS..
Can u believe the number of people who are gonna be out of jobs…We are really living in tough times!!! This is gonna affect all the Virgin Islands and the Caribbean on a whole…
Big Blow to St. Croix! loss of 2500 JOBs is not easy at all! Dominica will defo be affected since our families work there!
We already feeling it so bad over here and to add this is just insult to injury. Some ppl have to understand it better to be home in DA sometimes atleast we help each other out. Here if u don’t have a job ur roof will collapse on ur head and it will stay so. My ppl be satisfied with what we have back home cuz d grass is not always greener on the other side
true say very good point.
Think and pray for our families in the USVI. The effects may very well trickle down to Dominica. Not far fetched.
Remittances will deminish, another blow to the dominican family both in St Croix and DA,
I FEEL BAD FOR THE PEOPLE IN ST.CROIX BECAUSE
THAT THE BIGGEST COMPANY IN ST. CROIX.
Wow.. Good thing Athie Martin & Bernard Wiltshire stopped the refinery in Dominica, dem fellas have vision
You are so stupid, what does the shutting down of an oil refinery in St. Croix has to do with Athie, and Wiltshire denying Dominica the benefits of an oil refinery?
Left to Athie alone the main means of transportation in Dominica would be people swing on long wine ropes, from tree to tree like the mythical Tarzan in the jungles of Africa you know!
Athie is one of the people responsible for Dominica not having an international airport.
Remember he was involved in the shutting down of the International Airport in Dominica that the UWP had commenced constructing, you seem happy abut the St. Croix situation, but you better believe it, the people who will be out of a job due to it closing, are people such as Agustas Wallace, from Wesley, who has supervisory position there.
There are many other Dominicans working there, so you see how stupid you are?
Be that as it may those people residing in St. Croix will still survive receiving a cheque from some part of the American system as long as they are legal in St. Croix, unlike Dominica when you do not have a job, you are at the mercy at the people who gives you a hand out!
Athie is one of the people in Dominica who claims that if an oil refinery was built in Dominica, it would only employ seven people:
” because it was going to be a micro-refinery.”
There is no such thing on the face of the earth.
Because it is one of the largest in world does not mean it cannot fail. Trinidad has many oil refineries, operating for almost a hundred years, without fail, there is an oil refinery operating in Barbados for many decades now, it has not disrupted their tourist industry in any way.
The same thing apply’s to Trinidad.
Athie, and Wiltshire problem is that a refinery in Dominica would change their nature island into an oil pit dispensing oil all over the island, you people block your nations progress, while you sit and suffer in hunger and economic depression, and mental slavery, while you condone the nonsense you hear people speak.
Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
no, is not vision is just common sense. some thing u cant find in DLP
I wonder if this was Dominica that the Oil Refinery was closing down, I sure they would say is Skeritt and no Economic turndown.
True!
Are there still Dominicans, up to this day, who believe that an oil refinery in Dominica would be the best thing for the NATURE ISLE?
On reflection the patriots of Dominica who advocated against that project were correct. The idea of setting up of an oil refinery in Dominica would be truely against all what the Nature Isle brand stands for. People come first in any development process.
The ASSPHALT Plant close to the village of Layou is a vivid example of the ignorance (lack of knowledge)and lack of vision, disrespect for an entire community which protested against that project. Because the poor people in that community have NO assets -plenty land or money, their cries were not listened to. The authorities trampled on their RIGHTS to express their feelings about the negative effects that project would have on their health.
The authorities sided with the Big Businessman instead of seeing the merits of the concerns expressed by the marginalized. The FEW in Power would prefer to pollute the country, and crush the NATURE ISLE BRAND by accepting an oil refinery in Dominica. The people of Dominica must be ever vigilant and do everything to preserve the NATURE ISLE BRAND.
The negative effects will come back to HUNT the authorities and all those who agreed to the spewing of cancerous fumes on the Layou village and surroundings.
And you are going to put the plant in my community? It has to go somewhere, so where do you propose???