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Hess Corp has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to help explore the potential sale of its crude oil and refined products storage and transshipment terminal in St Lucia, Dow Jones reports.

The news follows the decision in January to close its Hovensa refinery on the island of St. Croix after the plant racked up losses of US$1.3 billion over the past three years amid weak demand for refined petroleum products following the global economic downturn and the addition of new refining capacity in emerging markets.

Hovensa is a joint venture between Hess Corp and Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA). The company has also been an active supplier of marine fuels at Christiansted, Frederiksted and Port Alucroix.

Refinery Rumours

Earlier this year, Hess Corp. quashed rumours that it was planning to construct a multibillion dollar oil refinery in St. Lucia.

Rumours linking Hess Corp. to the construction of an oil refinery in St Lucia apparently resurfaced after an old article published by the Oil & Gas Journal in October 2008 began circulating in January on email chains, Facebook and other social media sites.

The article in question quotes a St. Lucia government minister as saying that the company had begun preparatory work for the construction of a $5 billion refinery in St Lucia, not far from the fuel storage terminal it has been operating on the island.

However, the following day Reuters published an article quoting Hess Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Hess as saying that, while the company has the option of building a refinery on the island, it had no plans to do so.

It is understood that the option had been included in a 2007 renegotiated agreement between St. Lucia and Hess Corp., and that the company has maintained that option for several decades.

According to the Hess Corp. website, the oil storage terminal in St. Lucia has the capacity store 9 million barrels of petroleum products.