Hovensa enters deal after filing for bankruptcy

The oil storage facility in the US Virgin Islands, a sought after site in the oil storage trade, could be back up and running soon after agreeing deal with Limetree Bay Holdings

The plant's owners Hess and Venezuela's PdV have agreed to sell Hovensa to Limetree Bay Holdings, backed by private equity firm ArcLight capital, for $190m, according to bankruptcy court documents. Limetree, in turn, has agreed to lease 10m of the plant's 13m barrels of operational oil storage capacity to China's Sinopec, and a further 2m barrels of storage to commodity trader Freepoint for 10 years. The deal, which still needs to be approved by the US Virgin Islands legislature, brings an end in sight to a long-running and bitter dispute between Hess and the local government over the future of the facility. As part of the agreement, Hess, PdV and the government have agreed to drop all outst