Refinery Makeover: White House Hopes To Attract Private Investors For Defunct Fuel Factories

Investors know the Trump administration is worried about fuel prices — and they're offering assistance.

The White House has had discussions with a wide range of potential suitors to reopen defunct petroleum refineries from the Virgin Islands to California amid rising anxieties over higher fuel prices, according to three industry executives familiar with the talks. National Energy Dominance Council officials confirmed they have fielded inquiries from potential investors, and the industry sources said the NEDC connected those investors to relevant agencies to discuss how the government could help facilitate investments.

The discussions have progressed to the point where council officials have consulted with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on regulatory requirements for reopening mothballed facilities — an issue likely to be particularly relevant for the refinery on St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which has faced years of environmental problems and legal battles.

St. Croix “is one of the refineries on a short list of refineries ... that the administration wants to keep running,” said one of the industry executives, who was granted anonymity to describe discussions with White House officials.

Among the potential investors who have engaged with the White House on the St. Croix refinery are the backers of the Freedom Fuel Network who operate 25 Philadelphia-area gas stations promoted by President Donald Trump for offering discount gas, according to that executive and one other industry executive with knowledge of the effort who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. The Freedom Fuel representatives had hoped to secure a contract with the Pentagon to buy jet fuel that could help them raise the hundreds of millions of dollars in financing needed to buy and refurbish the refinery, the two people said.

The Freedom Fuel Network did not respond to questions, nor did the New Jersey businessmen involved — Baltimore Ravens senior special teams coach Randy Brown, former commodities trader Yoni Gontownik and fuel retailer Shamikh Kazmi. The Pentagon said in a statement that it “cannot speak to unawarded contracts.”

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers did not comment on conversations with the Freedom Fuel Network but said in a statement the NEDC will “continue supporting the reopening of shuttered refineries and the construction of new ones to lower prices and strengthen our national security.”

“Energy security is national security, and America’s refining capacity is essential to ensuring the United States has continuous access to secure, affordable, and reliable energy,” she said.

A White House official, granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations with the industry, said Brown did inquire about a possible investment in the St. Croix refinery, but was not pursuing a deal to their knowledge. The White House did not facilitate any discussions between Brown and the Pentagon over a fuel contract, the official added.

“Since April of 2025 many companies have approached the NEDC to express their interest in purchasing the St. Croix refinery — and seeking potential government assistance to do so,” the official said. The inquiries have picked up since the Trump administration captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and launched its effort to rebuild the country’s oil sector.

“The Trump administration would like to see refineries across the country reopen, especially the St. Croix refinery as it is in a strategic location and was built particularly to refine Venezuelan crude,” the official added.

The administration has already taken steps to make it easier to restart old refineries. EPA last year killed a long-standing policy that required refineries and other industrial sites to obtain a new round of permits if resuming operations after two or more years of sitting idle.

“The Trump administration and Lee Zeldin at the EPA have changed course on certain policies that would facilitate the reopening of the St. Croix refinery,” said Jim Reardon, a partner at the law firm Nelson Mullins in Houston who works with oil and gas companies, adding that he remains skeptical the refinery can attract an investor willing to fork over enough money to restart it.

EPA spokesperson Brigit Hirsch said in a statement that the NEDC and EPA “have been engaged on the potential restart of the St. Croix refinery since the beginning of the term.”

“The Trump administration remains willing to work with appropriate parties to address outstanding requirements and identify a safe and lawful path forward,” Hirsch said.

The investment push comes as the Trump administration pushes to expand fuel production close to home and stem a wave of refinery closures that have occurred in recent years, an effort made more urgent by disruptions in global fuel supplies stemming from the Middle East war. It also dovetails with the administration’s aggressive actions to increase oil production in Venezuela, which previously supplied the bulk of the crude processed by the St. Croix plant under a joint venture with its original owner.

The U.S. has lost a chunk of its ability to turn crude oil into fuels like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel as aging domestic refineries over the past decade have shut down because of poor profitability or damage from dramatic accidents. Overall refining capacity in the country has fallen nearly 5 percent from a high of about 19 million barrels a day in 2020, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The remaining U.S. refineries have been running flat out this year to keep U.S. gas stations supplied and feed record global exports since Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz choked off a significant share of the world’s fuel supplies. U.S. refineries were running at higher than 97 percent of their capacity last week, processing 17.3 million barrels of oil to hit the highest mark since September 2019, the EIA reported Wednesday.

The White House is also seeking investors interested in restarting refineries in California that have been mothballed in recent years. The Trump administration has publicly blamed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom for contributing to the refinery closures in a state with the country’s highest gasoline prices.

Phillips 66 halted operations at its refinery in Los Angeles last fall and Valero followed suit at its Benicia, California, facility this spring. Both companies cited long-term regulatory and market pressures. California officials tried unsuccessfully to broker deals with other oil companies that could keep the facilities running, though Valero left open the possibility of its refinery restarting down the line.

Valero and Newsom’s office did not provide comment. Al Ortiz, a Phillips 66 spokesperson, declined to address the specifics of the company’s discussions with government officials, but said in a statement that it “remains committed to the redevelopment” of its Los Angeles refinery. The company has backed plans to develop a food and shopping district and an industrial park on the land.

Trump has also touted plans for what developers describe as the first major new U.S. refinery in five decades, a proposed facility in Brownsville, Texas, that they have said could begin construction this year.

The St. Croix refinery, which operated from 1966 until 2012 and briefly again in 2021, could prove particularly attractive given the billions in refining equipment and infrastructure already at the site and its strategic location along Atlantic shipping lanes. But reviving the facility would mean overcoming a troubled operational and environmental history, including the short-lived restart attempt pushed by the first Trump administration.

In 2021, just months after the plant reopened, EPA under the Biden administration ordered it shut down after a series of flaring accidents rocked the plant, raining oily mist on nearby residents and triggering large releases of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide.

EPA said it was using emergency powers to protect the surrounding community, which is “predominantly made up of people of color and low-income populations who are already disproportionately affected by environmental burdens.” The plant, then owned by Limetree Bay Ventures LLC, filed for bankruptcy within months.

But two years later, a federal court overturned EPA’s order requiring the plant to undergo a lengthy and expensive permitting process before restarting operations. Last year, Zeldin cited that court decision in ending the agency’s policy of requiring power plants, refineries and other industrial sources to obtain a new round of permits if resuming operations after two or more years of sitting idle.

Earlier this year, St. Croix residents who sued the facility’s owners reached a proposed $35 million settlement to resolve claims tied to long-standing toxic exposure.

The current owner of the refinery, Port Hamilton Refining and Transportation, which bought it out of bankruptcy in 2021, has maintained it wants to find a way to restart the facility. Both the company and local officials, including Virgin Islands Democratic Gov. Albert Bryan Jr., have cited the Trump administration’s support as a boon to the restart efforts. Virgin Islands government officials did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment.

Port Hamilton Refining and Transportation Director David Johnson declined to comment on any specific discussions with prospective investors or government agencies, but said in a statement that “as part of evaluating a refinery restart of this scale, we routinely evaluate potential sources of support and financing across both the public and private sectors.”

“The continued interest in PHRT reflects the strategic importance of the St. Croix refinery and the substantial progress we continue to make toward the safe, phased resumption of operations,” Johnson said. “Our focus remains on responsibly returning this nationally significant infrastructure to productive service, creating long-term economic opportunity for the U.S. Virgin Islands, strengthening domestic refining capability and enhancing America’s long-term energy security.”

Pedro Orihuela, president of UDSS Refining, a consulting firm engaged by PHRT to find potential investors, said in an email that “there is serious, established interest on both the supply-and-offtake and financing sides, and those discussions are well advanced.”

Orihuela declined to confirm any specific discussions with potential investors or government officials, but said he is engaged with “both the public and private sectors in support of the Administration’s energy agenda.”

“By returning U.S.-based refining capacity to service, the project contributes to securing American energy dominance,” Orihuela said.

Orihuela’s firm has estimated that a restart would cost approximately $686 million and take 18 months to bring the facility back to the capacity of 180,000 barrels per day that it reached under its previous owners in 2021. That’s well below the 650,000 barrels per day it produced at its peak in the 1970s when it was one of the world’s largest refineries.

“The plant is clean, permitted, and ready,” Orihuela said.