{"id":20020,"date":"2015-03-28T10:02:08","date_gmt":"2015-03-28T10:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=20020"},"modified":"2015-03-28T10:02:08","modified_gmt":"2015-03-28T10:02:08","slug":"governor-mapp-signs-1-million-appropriations-bill-for-hovensa-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=20020","title":{"rendered":"Governor Mapp Signs $1 Million Appropriations Bill For HOVENSA Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Governor Kenneth Mapp has signed into law\u00a0Bill No. 31-0021, which appropriates $1 million to pursue legal action against “Hess Oil V.I. Corp., HOVENSA, LLC, Petroleos de Venezuela, PDVSA, VI, Inc., and all related entities” in order to recoup $40 million the refinery\u00a0owes the government from a previous court settlement. Furthermore, the money is expected to be used for litigation pertaining to the government’s intent to foreclose on the refinery and for other environmental issues at the site.<\/p>\n

On March 5, the governor\u00a0forwarded a proposal to Senate President Neville James seeking authorization and appropriation of $1 million to retain counsel in the government\u2019s intended\u00a0litigation against Hess Oil \u201cto enforce the rights of the people of the Virgin Islands pursuant to the concession and Settlement Agreements entered into between Hess Oil, its related entities, and the U.S. Virgin Islands,\u201d according to Government House.<\/p>\n

Mapp\u00a0previously made known his intention to seek funds for the litigation process during his State of the Territory Address on Jan. 26, where he said market conditions forced both parties to take varying paths in their quest for a resolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur relationship, the territory\u2019s and Hess Oil, for the most part, has been a good one. But according to Hess, market forces have brought us to this point where we must part company,\u201d the governor said during his address.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, let us assume for the purposes of this discussion that the closure was solely driven by market forces,\u201d Mapp continued, \u201cHess Oil wants to leave and, frankly speaking, the people of the Virgin Islands aren\u2019t interested in forcing them to stay. In other words, as we say on the Big Island, it\u2019s time to turn a page. However, there must be an orderly exit, with Hess Oil fulfilling its obligations to the people of this territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon approving the measure, Mapp said the unanimous support of the 31st Legislature is a clear indicator that all branches of government are in lockstep as it relates to the HOVENSA refinery.<\/p>\n

“The Senate\u2019s unanimous support for this appropriation signals that the leadership of the Territory is in accord with protecting the interest of and pursuing all claims owed to the people of the Virgin Islands,” he said. “My Administration will pursue every legal avenue and do all within our authority to bring this matter to an equitable resolution.\u00a0 I thank each member of the body for their resolve.”<\/p>\n

While speaking at the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting earlier this month, the governor told\u00a0an\u00a0audience of business persons<\/a><\/span> that HOVENSA officials have informed\u00a0him they have found a buyer for the shuttered refinery.<\/p>\n

Mapp, however,\u00a0said he had other plans, indicating that while he would accept any decision HOVENSA\u2019s owners made in selling the refinery, he would like to see the facility, specifically\u00a0its docking and storage capabilities, be used for economic stimulation and security for the territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe short reality on this matter is we continue to extend our cooperation on HOVENSA\u2019s issue with a sale \u2014 some of you may be aware that folks are continuing to fly into the territory [to] look at the facility.\u00a0Mr. Timothy Goodell, the senior vice president at HESS Oil, had advised me that they believe they have a buyer,\u201d Mapp said, adding, \u201cand that there may be some closing of a sale, but obviously could not warrant that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cAnd for all intents and purposes, while I would like HOVENSA to sell the property, and pay the government what it is owed, I am not stuck in that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mapp, who recently visited\u00a0Washington, DC to attend the 2015 National Governor\u2019s Association\u00a0Winter Meeting, said\u00a0his team had prepared a presentation in advance of the trip to present the Obama administration with the possibility of using the shuttered refinery for Department of Defense purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I will not be able to speak this morning in great detail, I would like to alert the people of the Virgin Islands that in my meetings with President Obama and the governors, and we set this information up prior to our arrival to make sure that this conversation could take place, we believe that the HOVENSA property, particularly its docking and storage facilities, which sit on land that are leased by the Government of the Virgin Islands to HESS Oil, have significant Department of Defense value, and we made a presentation to the Obama administration on how this value can be used in the territory,\u201d Mapp explained.<\/p>\n

The governor said the\u00a0Obama administration took interest in the presentation and officials invited him back to the White House to further discuss the plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president did acknowledge our invitation and asked me to standby after our meeting with the governor\u2019s office \u2014 they wanted to have a conversation with me, [so] I was brought back to the White House the following day at noon to meet with two of the president\u2019s senior advisors, and participated in a conference call with members of the Department of Defense,\u201d Mapp said.<\/p>\n

He continued:\u00a0\u201cAnd I will say to you that I can\u2019t make any assurances to the people of the Virgin Islands what the tenor and the depth of those conversations were, but I can say to you that in about fifteen days there will be a full assessment team from the Department of Defense on St. Croix, doing a \u00a0complete assessment of the property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mapp said his goal is to revitalize the territory\u2019s economy and boost its security.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy objective is economic activity, jobs and\u00a0security,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd to the extent that HOVIC and HOVENSA does what it needs to do in the transference and sale of its property, that\u2019s fine; we will accept whatever monies is due and owed to us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a foreclosure arrangement, but this administration is focused on what value activity can take place at that site, jobs that can be created by use of the docking facilities, networking of our assets of the V.I. National Guard, and some participation in the nation\u2019s policy for Homeland Security issues and defense,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n

Mapp did not disclose the refinery\u2019s buyer; however, it does not appear to be Monarch Energy Partners, a company that has\u00a0expressed strong interest in purchasing HOVENSA.<\/p>\n

\u00a0[Bill No. 31-0021]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governor Kenneth Mapp has signed into law\u00a0Bill No. 31-0021, which appropriates $1 million to pursue legal action against “Hess Oil V.I. Corp., HOVENSA, LLC, Petroleos de Venezuela, PDVSA, VI, Inc., and all related entities” in order to recoup $40 million the refinery\u00a0owes the government from a previous court settlement. Furthermore, the money is expected to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,191,147],"tags":[1055,1505,71],"yoast_head":"\nGovernor Mapp Signs $1 Million Appropriations Bill For HOVENSA Lawsuit - V.I. Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"HOVENSA -- Governor Kenneth Mapp has signed into law Bill No. 31-0021, which appropriates $1 million to pursue legal against "Hess Oil V.I. Corp., HOVENSA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=20020\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ernice Gilbert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=20020\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=20020\",\"name\":\"Governor Mapp Signs $1 Million Appropriations Bill For HOVENSA Lawsuit - V.I. Consortium\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-28T10:02:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-28T10:02:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51\"},\"description\":\"HOVENSA -- Governor Kenneth Mapp has signed into law Bill No. 31-0021, which appropriates $1 million to pursue legal against \\\"Hess Oil V.I. Corp., HOVENSA\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=20020#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=20020\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=20020#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Governor Mapp Signs $1 Million Appropriations Bill For HOVENSA Lawsuit\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/\",\"name\":\"V.I. Consortium\",\"description\":\"Uniting the Caribbean\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51\",\"name\":\"Ernice Gilbert\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ernice Gilbert\"},\"description\":\"I wear many hats, I suppose, but the one which fits me best would be journalism, second to that would be radio personality, thirdly singer\/songwriter and down the line. I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Governor Mapp Signs $1 Million Appropriations Bill For HOVENSA Lawsuit - V.I. Consortium","description":"HOVENSA -- Governor Kenneth Mapp has signed into law Bill No. 31-0021, which appropriates $1 million to pursue legal against \"Hess Oil V.I. Corp., HOVENSA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=20020","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ernice Gilbert","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=20020","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=20020","name":"Governor Mapp Signs $1 Million Appropriations Bill For HOVENSA Lawsuit - V.I. Consortium","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-28T10:02:08+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-28T10:02:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51"},"description":"HOVENSA -- Governor Kenneth Mapp has signed into law Bill No. 31-0021, which appropriates $1 million to pursue legal against \"Hess Oil V.I. Corp., HOVENSA","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=20020#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=20020"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=20020#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Governor Mapp Signs $1 Million Appropriations Bill For HOVENSA Lawsuit"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/","name":"V.I. Consortium","description":"Uniting the Caribbean","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51","name":"Ernice Gilbert","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ernice Gilbert"},"description":"I wear many hats, I suppose, but the one which fits me best would be journalism, second to that would be radio personality, thirdly singer\/songwriter and down the line. I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.","sameAs":["http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/"],"url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20020"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}