Hovensa is a petroleum refinery located on the island of St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands

United States Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands of the United States are a group of islands in the Caribbean that are an insular area of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.The U.S...

. The refinery is a joint venture between Hess Corporation

Hess Corporation

The Hess Corporation is an integrated oil company based in New York City. The company explores, produces, transports, and refines crude oil and natural gas. Vertically completing the logistical chain, about 1,360 Hess branded filling stations market gasoline to consumers in 16 states along the...

 and Petroleos de Venezuela that mostly supplies heating oil and gasoline to the U.S Gulf Coast and the eastern seaboard with the crude mainly sourced from Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

. At a capacity of about 500000 oilbbl/d it is in the top 10 largest refineries in the world.

Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corporation started refinery construction in January 1966 having purchased the property from Annie de Chabert

Annie de Chabert

Ansetta de Chabert , was a St. Croix, Virgin Islands business woman and civic activist...

 and in October same year the refinery started operating. In 1974, the capacity of refinery was expanded up to 650000 oilbbl/d. Hovensa LLC, which took over the refinery operatorship, was established in 1998.

See also

• Puerto Rico – Virgin Islands pipeline

• 2ND Largest Refinery paid $5.3 million penalty for Clean Air Act violations. Company to spend more than $700 million in new pollution controls that will help protect public health and resolve Clean Air Act violations at its St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands refinery<ref>