The island of St. Croix was once home to one of the largest oil refineries in the world. The refinery was closed in 2012, but plans are afoot for it to be refurbished and for oil refining operations to restart on St. Croix as early as 2019:

US Virgin Islands Governor Kenneth Mapp has announced an agreement that would reopen one of the world’s largest refineries, create hundreds of jobs in the territory and shore up the solvency of the Government Employees Retirement System (GERS).

Mapp said the $1.4 billion agreement was between the government of the US Virgin Islands and ArcLight Capital Partners, LLC, the owners of what had been one of the largest oil refineries in the world, when it was shutdown in 2012. The massive deal includes reopening the refinery portion of the operation that, when restarted, will inject hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy, generating new tax revenues.

Under the agreement with ArcLight Capital, the owners of what is now called Limetree Bay Terminals, the company will invest approximately $1.4 billion to refurbish the existing refinery located in St Croix. Over the next 18 months, this will create more than 1,200 local construction jobs.

Once refinery operations commence at the end of 2019, as many as 700 permanent jobs will be created. The new jobs will be in addition to the more than 750 jobs now at the terminal storage facility. The initial refining operations provide for the processing of approximately 200,000 barrels of crude oil feedstock per day.

“This agreement is great news for the people of the Virgin Islands as we continue to grow and expand our economy,” said Mapp, who noted it is tremendous news for the ‘big island,’ which felt the full brunt of the shutdown of refining operations in 2012.

Read more in the full report at Caribbean News Now.

[Image: via Caribbean News Now]