The BVI Electricity Corporation is assuring that customers will not feel the squeeze in their pockets from Hovensa closing on their electric bills.

In an exclusive interview with Virgin Islands News Online yesterday January 30, 2012, Henry Creque, Acting General Manager of BVIEC, disclosed that the corporation has a fuel supply contract with Delta Petroleum who gets its fuel from Hovensa and it has since received formal assurances that its fuel supplies will not be interrupted and the prices in the contract which runs until the end of August 2012, should remain the same.

“We have been in discussions with Delta Petroleum about it and they have given us formal assurances that our fuel supplies will not be interrupted,” he said.
Asked about the issue of price and whether it will be increases and handed down to customers, he said the prices in the contract remain the same.

The BVIEC gets its fuel from Hovensa through supplier Delta Petroleum and has assurances until the end of its contract in September of fuel supply and price stability.

“So the price should not go up as a result of the closure,” Mr. Creque assured. “We have clear assurances up until June and further until the end of the contract.”

He said there will be a process between now and August with discussions with Delta Petroleum and said once all goes well he expects things to remain the same.
“We were very concerned as well when we heard about it and the quick time it will be closed.”

Speaking on the social aspect of the closing of the refinery, he said he is aware that there will be social consequences in both St. Croix and St. Thomas.
Regional General Manager of Delta Petroleum Bevis Sylvester was contacted on the issue but a comment up to publication time could not be obtained.

Bob Pickering of Dominoes Gas Station also gets his fuel, through a supplier from Hovensa and said he will continue to get fuel from them until June which means his prices will remain the same.

Bob Pickering of Dominoe's Gas Station is exploring options for future fuel supply but said until June his prices will remain the same

Pickering said initially the company had said it will no longer but exporting but shortly after it said it will be doing so until June.

Asked what he will do, come June, the businessman said he has begun looking in to options. While he has begun to look at the Puerto Rico market, Mr. Pickering said he understands that some 60 percent of Puerto Rico’s fuel also comes from Hovensa.
“People are concerned that prices will go up, right now it will be around the same price. Right now it’s more like concerns what is going to happen down the line,” he said as he hopes for the best.