MOSCOW (MRC) -- A US bankruptcy judge has approved the USD62 MM sale of Limetree Bay refinery to a Jamaican oil storage company, reported Reuters with reference to the judge's statement on Tuesday.
The company, West Indies Petroleum, was named the winning bidder on Saturday by Limetree after a second auction was conducted over the weekend.
The winning bidder of the first auction, St. Croix Energy, was named the backup bidder for the refinery.
As MRC informed earlier, the St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, refinery filed for bankruptcy in July after investors poured USD4.1 billion into an unsuccessful revival of the aging facility. US regulators halted processing after residents complained of foul odors, oil that was sprayed on nearby homes and contaminated drinking water supplies.
Jefferies Financial Group Inc, which was hired to find a buyer, said in its marketing pitch that “zero facility investment” is required for a restart. It also said the refinery had been fully operational since January 2021 and has “strong government support” at territorial and municipal levels.
And Judge Jones, who is a veteran of refinery restructurings in the Southern District of Texas court, said in July he was concerned about Limetree’s ability to through Chapter 11 with the existing DIP loan. The process of decommissioning the refinery will take several months, the company’s owner, a consortium led by EIG Global Energy Partners, told the Texas court this month.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC