America needs oil now: Trump is sitting on a sleeping giant in the Virgin Islands - By Albert Bryan Jr.

America needs oil now: Trump is sitting on a sleeping giant in the  Virgin Islands 

By Albert Bryan Jr. 

Published in the Washington Examiner September 24, 2026  

President Donald Trump has made American energy dominance and lower costs national  priorities. He recently announced an agreement giving the United States majority control over  more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s proven crude reserves and brought refinery  executives to the White House with a practical question: How can America increase refining  capacity and turn abundant crude into the gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other products  families and businesses use every day? 

When refining capacity is tight, the public pays more to drive to work, move freight, and fly.  Adding real refining capacity is one of the most direct ways to take pressure off those daily  costs. Part of the answer is already on American soil. 

In the U.S. Virgin Islands, on St. Croix, stands a refinery that was once the world’s largest.  Built in 1966, the former Hess plant grew rapidly. For a period in the 1970s, it was the  world’s largest refinery, with capacity exceeding 650,000 barrels per day. After the west-side  crude units were later shut down, official capacity was 360,000 barrels per day. A 2021 restart  was configured for roughly 200,000 barrels per day before the Environmental Protection  Agency ordered operations paused because of public-health concerns. Today, the plant  produces zero. 

This is an existing American refinery, not a greenfield project. The tanks, docks, process  units, and industrial backbone are already there. Building a comparable plant from scratch  would take years and billions of dollars — if it could get through the maze of federal, state,  and local permitting. The U.S. has 128 fewer refineries than it did in the early 1980s. The  newest U.S. refinery with significant downstream processing capacity came online nearly 50  years ago.

More crude from Venezuela, Guyana, or the Gulf Coast does not, by itself, produce more  gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel. America also needs the capacity to refine it. When a major plant  unexpectedly goes offline, already-tight regional markets face more supply pressure and  higher prices. Restarting St. Croix means putting existing infrastructure back to work, as soon  as it can be done safely and practically, and producing as much fuel as the market needs and  the facility can responsibly support. 

St. Croix will not close America’s refining gap by itself. But a large idle American refinery is  a national asset, not a local nostalgia project. Use what the country already has rather than  waiting on a new plant that may never be built. The Virgin Islands sit close to Western  Hemisphere crude oil supplies, including Venezuela and Guyana. This refinery was built to  process Venezuelan heavy crude. Process that crude on American soil and supply American  and Caribbean consumers who now depend on imported finished products. 

I worked at this refinery earlier in my career. When it runs well, it means skilled jobs,  contractor work, and revenue for schools, infrastructure, retirees, and public services. When it  does not run, St. Croix loses that industrial muscle. When it is run badly, neighbors pay in  public health and lost trust. A new effort needs capital, modern environmental and safety  practices, experienced operators, reliable crude and offtake, and a commercial structure that  can survive commodity cycles. Learn from what went wrong. 

Washington should treat this as a national capacity project. The White House should  designate a team and convene the territorial government, the refinery’s owners and operators,  and the federal agencies responsible for energy, environmental compliance, territorial affairs,  and national defense. The objective should be a coordinated pathway that identifies what a  safe restart requires and which existing federal tools can appropriately support financing of a  qualified project. 

We are not asking Washington to waive environmental standards or guarantee a private  investment. We are asking it to use the authorities it already has: put the agencies at one table,  set clear requirements, evaluate available support, and reach decisions. The Virgin Islands are  part of the U.S. This is an American refinery. Our workers are American workers. That option  deserves a federal path — not another year of drift. 

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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/op-eds/4740239/st-croix refinery-restart-us-refining-capacity-like-modern-environmental practices/