OREANDA-NEWS. The terminal assets of the idled Hovensa refining complex on the US Virgin Islands will come up for auction in a US bankruptcy court on 10 November, but a final sale is contingent on local government and legislative approval of an operating agreement.

Bids are due on 5 November, and an intended sale hearing will take place on 12 November, according to bidding procedures issued by the bankruptcy court in Delaware. A sale is scheduled to close on 4 December.

Securing local approval may pose the most formidable challenge to Hovensa?s owners, US independent Hess subsidiary Hovic and its 50pc partner, Venezuelan state-owned PdV. In January 2015, the local legislature tossed out a proposed operating agreement between the government of the US Virgin Islands and start-up firm Atlantic Basin Refining (ABR) that would have re-started the refinery.

In one scenario, the terminal assets will be awarded to lead bidder Limetree Bay Holdings, a subsidiary of US private equity firm ArcLight Capital Partners, for $184mn. The terminal assets include 32mn bl of crude and refined products storage and 10 tanker berths of up to 55ft draught.

But the company?s "stalking horse" offer could be beaten by other contenders for the assets, including US Buckeye Pipeline or US energy and utility consultancy Monarch Energy Partners. The latter is eyeing the whole complex, including the 350,000 b/d refinery that it wants to restart.

Even if the assets are successfully sold at the bankruptcy court and the local government and legislature approve an operating agreement, Hess could face years of litigation. The US Virgin Islands government filed a lawsuit against the company last month, accusing it of illegally abandoning the refinery operation before fulfilling its contract that ran to 2022, among other allegations. The government is seeking damages of at least $1.5bn.

Hess dismisses the suit as "wholly without merit" and says Hovic and the Hovensa joint venture "operated properly and responsibly." The company says the operating agreement for the refinery did not obligate Hovensa to continue operating the facility at a loss.

Hovensa closed the refinery in February 2012 after losing $1.3bn over three years, and turned the facility into a storage terminal.

Hess last week filed a motion to shift the case from the US Virgin Islands superior Court to the bankruptcy court. The local government plans to file a motion to have the case restored to the superior court.

US Virgin Islands acting attorney general Claude Walker has subpoenaed PdV to explain its role in the refinery operation, and has granted a request by PdV to extend a 2 November deadline for responding by around two weeks, according to a lawyer representing the US Virgin Islands government.

Venezuelan officials say PdV was not involved with the operation of the refinery, and only supplied the facility with its heavy crude for processing.

The back-and-forth is likely to be a preamble to a lengthy legal battle that will outlast the fleeting bankruptcy proceeding and sales process.