Limetree Bay Terminals is now Ocean Point Terminals, the CEO of the St. Croix oil and fuel storage facility announced on Sunday.
The name change took effect on Monday.
“It was really important for us to choose a brand that speaks to the operational excellence of our local employees, their dedication to safety, and the ongoing stewardship our company provides,” CEO Todd Dillabough said in a statement announcing the change. “The name Ocean Point Terminals connects the business to both the USVI community and the world,” he said.
According to the press release, “the name Ocean Point was carefully developed and selected by the Company’s employees. Ocean Point Terminals is a name that recognizes our beautiful and strategic location in the USVI, which serves as the ideal point for the global movement of petroleum products, essentially connecting the USVI to the rest of the world.”
The name change comes as the storage facility’s neighbor, Port Hamilton Refining and Transportation, works to restart the former Limetree Bay Refinery that it purchased at a bankruptcy auction in December.
Limetree Bay Terminals/Ocean Point Terminals is a separate corporate entity from the refinery, though according to court documents, the companies share some infrastructure, including power generation, wastewater treatment, lab facilities, administration buildings, and employee housing, and are located on the same 2,000-acre stretch of industrial land on the south shore of St. Croix.
Those shared resources led Limetree Bay Terminals to file a complaint in V.I. Superior Court on June 22, alleging that Port Hamilton owes millions of dollars in past-due payments for its share of the services under a temporary agreement with LBT. The complaint says the oil storage facility set deadlines to terminate certain services to Port Hamilton in April, including use of employee housing, email and internet connections, and phones.
In its answer to the complaint on July 28, Port Hamilton admitted it entered into a temporary agreement with Limetree Bay Terminals for certain shared services and has not paid what the plaintiff claims is owed but said some services provided were unacceptable.
“Defendant admits that plaintiff provided some services, avers that some services were substandard, and admits that it has not paid plaintiff the full amount that plaintiff claims is due,” Port Hamilton’s attorney, Andrew C. Simpson, stated in its response.
Port Hamilton has asked that the court dismiss the case with prejudice and seeks to recover attorney fees. The case is still pending.
Meanwhile, both entities are named as defendants in a complaint brought by the U.S. Justice Department on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency in July 2021. The EPA ordered the refinery shut down in May 2021 following a disastrous attempt at a restart that rained pollution over neighboring homes. Limetree Bay Refining announced one month later that it would suspend operations indefinitely, and in July 2021, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The Justice Department filed an unopposed motion to stay all deadlines in the case on the same day it filed the complaint, and both the refinery and storage facility have since been subject to court-ordered joint status reports, the last of which was filed on June 27 and did not include Limetree Bay Refining because it “ceased to exist” as of June 10 and remains idled. The report notes that the terminal business remains in operation.
According to Sunday’s press release, which described Ocean Point Terminals as a world-class energy logistics hub, the facility “will remain a committed and responsible member of the U.S. Virgin Islands community, and the brand reflects that commitment to vigorously preserve and protect the environment.”
Visit the Ocean Point Terminals website here.
