OREANDA-NEWS. US energy and utility consultancy Monarch Energy Partners will make another attempt to purchase the mothballed 350,000 b/d Hovensa refinery and fuel storage and distribution facilities in the US Virgin Islands, the company says.

The firm attempted to purchase the assets in 2014, but Hovensa reached a provisional agreement instead with start-up Atlantic Basin Refining (ABR). That transaction failed when the territory's legislators rejected an operating agreement between the government and ABR.

Hovensa plans to sell its assets through a US bankruptcy process, the company said on 14 September.

It has received a bid from Limetree Bay Holdings, a subsidiary of US private equity firm ArcLight Capital Partners. The court-approved sale process allows other bidders to make offers.

Monarch Energy Partners plans to purchase, clean up and operate both the terminal and refining portions of Hovensa. The intention is "to operate the refinery at full capacity," the company says.

"Monarch entered into the original sales process that began over a year ago, and has been working tirelessly since then to acquire the refinery. Because time is of the essence, Monarch is eager to move forward," the firm said on 21 September.

Limetree Bay Holdings has offered $184mn for the terminal assets, which include 32mn bl of crude and refined products storage and 10 tanker berths of up to 55ft draught.

Hovensa is a 50:50 joint venture between US independent Hess and Venezuelan state-owned PdV.

Hovensa closed the unprofitable refinery on St Croix in early 2012 and converted it into a storage terminal.

The facility that dates to the 1960s mostly ran Venezuelan heavy crude and reached a capacity of 500,000 b/d before operations were scaled back.

Before its deal folded, ABR had planned to reconfigure the facility to process US light crude instead.

Hovensa ended its fuel distribution operations earlier this year when it exhausted its products inventory.

The sale of the refinery and fuel distribution facilities will require the negotiation of an operating agreement with the USVI government, approval of the operating agreement with the Virgin Islands senate and bankruptcy court approval, Hovensa has said.