Obituary
George Herbert Walker Bush June 12, 1924 – November 30, 2018
ECO salutes George Herbert Walker Bush on the national holiday to honor his memory, at age 94 the longest-lived president in U.S. history. Republican Bush served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. After his eldest son became President of the United States in 2001, the Patriarch of the modern Bush political dynasty was known as George Bush during his career in public service.In 2000 , Bush and his son became the second father–son pair to serve as president. George W. Bush, was governor of Texas and a two-term U.S. president and second son, Jeb Bush was the 43rd governor of Florida for eight years.
Scion of an influential, privileged family in the top echelon of politics and business for over a century, he was the son of Prescott Bush, a Massachusetts banker, later Republican senator from Connecticut, who served in World War I. Grandfather, mechanic Samuel Prescott Bush, son of an Episcopalian priest in New Jersey, became a wealthy industrialist as president of Buckeye Steel Castings Company in 1908 when Frank Rockefeller retired.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Bush enlisted in the United States Navy on his 18th birthday. As the youngest aviator in the U.S. Navy in World War 2, Lt. j.g. George H.W. Bush flew 58 combat missions, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism under fire, emblematic of his devotion to duty. After his torpedo bomber was shot down in 1944, USS Finback , a submarine patrolling near Chichijima in the Pacific Ocean rescued the wounded pilot and he stayed aboard Finback until he was returned to the aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto.
Graduating in economics from Yale University in 1948, he moved to West Texas, entering the petroleum industry at Dresser Industries, later Halliburton. Bush formed an oil development company which later merged with another company to create Zapata Petroleum. Bush became president of Zapata Off-Shore Company, which developed offshore drilling equipment. He relocated to Houston, founding his own oil company.
Democratic Texas continues as the unsurpassed home of petroleum technology. The upper-class oilman was elected to the House of Representatives in 1966 and 1968 and appointed Ambassador to the United Nations, Envoy to China and Director of Central Intelligence. As a conscientious Vice President, Bush led task forces on deregulation and the war on drugs.
Bush was the first incumbent vice president in 152 years to be elected president. As the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993, foreign policy drove his indispensable presidency, with military action to restore democracy in Panama and freedom in Kuwait in the Persian Gulf. A master at building coalitions, he understood how to deal adroitly with allies and adversaries, ending the Cold War and nuclear arms race. With faith in German reunification, the statesman facilitated liberation of Eastern Europe, securing a united Europe and frustrating Soviet efforts to dissolve the Atlantic alliance. The Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union disintegrated peacefully. Bush signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, bills on energy deregulation, the Clean Air Act, the 1990 farm bill, crime bill, Civil Rights Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Leaving the White House, Bush undertook humanitarian activities, the embodiment of patrician grace, brimming with decency and class, like the majority of pioneering oil barons. Moderate with a commitment to the power of the free market and a reputation for respectability and integrity, his kindness, modesty and patriotism are legendary, with no barriers, boundaries or limits,. With deft, skilled, sensitive diplomacy Bush stood tallest among leaders who made tough decisions for a freer, safer world.
He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund raised over $100 million for victims of Hurricane Katrina. By nature a captain, the ideal executor has departed like most kings, survived by 4 sons and a daughter. Among the Republicans is among stories V. S. Naipaul wrote about America in 2011.
Limetree Bay Refining
Limetree Bay Refining has reached agreement in principle with the supply and trading arm of an undisclosed oil major regarding the restart of an idled refinery at Limetree Bay in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands.
Limetree Bay Refining plans to restart the St. Croix refinery, a former HOVENSA petroleum refinery. Photo: courtesy of Cumulus Clouds/Wikipedia.org.
As per the terms considered, the oil company would enter into a tolling agreement with Limetree Bay Refining to serve as the supply and offtake counterparty of the St. Croix refinery.
The idled refinery, a former Hovensa oil terminal, has a peak processing capacity of 650,000 barrels per day and is expected to see an investment of more than $1.5bn. It was acquired out of bankruptcy in 2016 alongside the associated terminal assets by Limetree Bay Terminals, an affiliate of Limetree Bay Refining.
The St. Croix refinery is also equipped with nearly 32 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum product storage, a deep-water port with 10 petroleum docks, a bulk product dock, six tug boats, along with associated equipment and inventory.
In the last two years , Limetree Bay Refining claims to have restored over 25 million barrels of storage capacity to service and as of now has over 1,100 workers at the refinery site. Limetree Bay Refining had been looking up for opportunities to restart the idled St. Croix refinery shortly after its acquisition.
US Virgin Islands Governor Kenneth E. Mapp said: “The refinery will bring at least $1.5 billion in outside investment over the next fourteen months. It has already created 1,100 construction jobs, and once the refinery reopens it will generate upwards of 700 permanent jobs. Over the next ten years, the restarted refinery will produce hundreds of millions of dollars in new direct revenues to the Government.”
Limetree Bay Refining will handle the storage and terminaling services for the St. Croix refinery apart from leasing crude oil and petroleum product storage capacity to third-party customers.
President Brian Lever said: “The refinery restart project is the product of a collaborative effort with many Virgin Islanders. I want to express my gratitude, first, to Governor Mapp, whose vision and support were instrumental in enabling us to attain this milestone.”
BP to supply crude to St. Croix refinery
BP (BP) says its trading arm entered a tolling agreement with the owners of the idled Hovensa oil refinery in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, cementing plans to bring the plant back online six years after it was idled by previous owners.
Under the agreement, BP says it will supply the refinery with crude and sell low-sulfur fuels that will satisfy the International Maritime Organization rule calling for large vessels to switch by 2020 to fuels containing no more than 0.5% sulfur from 3.5% currently, a rule expected to prompt new demand for the distillates the refinery would produce.
Limetree Bay Refining, owned by ArcLight Capital Partners, is investing $1.5B to bring the Hovensa refinery, one of the largest such facilities in the world, back online by late 2019, with plans to process 200K bbl/day.