HOVENSA L.L.C. is the 6th largest oil refinery in the world, and is located on the Caribbean island of St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. The company became the owner and operator of the former Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corp. (HOVIC) refinery on October 30, 1998. PDVSA, V.I. Inc., a Virgin Islands subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (national oil company of Venezuela, also known as PDVSA) purchased fifty percent of the assets of HOVIC. HOVIC and PDVSA V.I., Inc. assigned their respective interests to the joint venture company, HOVENSA, L.L.C., which the two companies previously organized under the laws of the United States Virgin Islands.

HOVIC, a wholly owned Virgin Islands subsidiary of Amerada Hess Corporation, was established to construct and operate an oil refinery in coordination with the Virgin Islands Government’s efforts in the 1960’s to diversify the economy of the islands. HOVIC began construction of a 45,000 barrels per day refinery on St. Croix in January 1966; operation of the refinery began in October of the same year. The capacity of the refinery was expanded over several years to approximately 545,000 barrels per day, with facilities on 2000 acres in the industrial zone on the southshore of St. Croix.