Limetree Bay Refinery Settlement: $59.8 Million for St. Croix Residents Hit by the 2021 Oil Rainout — Claims Due November 3, 2026, but No Money Before a December 14 Final Hearing

If you lived, worked, owned or rented property, or ran a business on the west side of St. Croix in the spring of 2021, you may be part of the Limetree Bay refinery settlement. A court-authorized notice published on September 11, 2026 says: “$59,795,000 in settlements have been reached between the Plaintiffs and certain settling defendants in a Class Action lawsuit relating to alleged release incidents that occurred at the Limetree Bay Refinery from February to May 2021.” You only get money if you file: “you must file a Claim Form with all requested information and documentation to the Settlement Administrator by November 3, 2026.” Claims can be filed online at LimetreeBaySettlement.com, or on a downloaded paper form by mail.

The class covers anyone who “owned or rented property in the Affected Geographic Area on or after February 3, 2021” or who “resided in, worked in, owned or operated a business in, or were present in the Affected Geographic Area during the time period from February 3, 2021 to May 26, 2021.” The boundaries are drawn on a settlement map posted on the official website — check your address there before assuming you are in or out. In a fee motion reported by the Virgin Islands Daily News on September 24, 2026, class counsel described the fund as providing recovery to “approximately 22,000 Settlement Class members.”

The case behind it is Boynes v. Limetree Bay Ventures, LLC, the lead of four consolidated suits filed in 2021 in the District Court of the Virgin Islands. Residents allege that their properties and cisterns were contaminated by oily material that rained down from the refinery and that they suffered headaches, nausea and shortness of breath from the odors. The settling defendants deny it: they “vigorously deny that they violated any law but agreed to the settlements to avoid the expenses associated with continuing the Litigation.”

The $59,795,000 comes from three groups of deals that the court is handling on one schedule. On February 16, 2026, Senior District Judge Wilma A. Lewis preliminarily approved a $17,500,000 settlement with the “ArcLight and Freepoint” defendants and a $550,000 settlement with Pinnacle Services, LLC, and appointed Epiq as settlement administrator. A July 15, 2026 brief adds the largest piece: EIG Global Energy Partners, Limetree Bay Ventures and Limetree Bay Energy “have agreed to a collective total payment of $35,000,000.00,” paid by EIG and settling insurers. The rest — about $6.7 million, by our arithmetic — comes from contractor defendants, a group that joined the approval motion as Versa, Excel, Universal Plant Services and Elite Turnaround Specialists. Judge Mark A. Kearney granted preliminary approval of the newer settlements on August 27, 2026 and entered an amended settlement order on September 8.

How much will I get? Nobody can say yet, and any site quoting a fixed figure is guessing. The notice says payments “will be calculated using a pro rata point system encompassing property damage, nuisance, trespass, economic losses, cistern related physical impact, physical and emotional health manifestations, and non-reimbursed out-of-pocket expenses.” The plaintiffs’ brief explains the math: “Each Claimant’s point total will be divided by the total points allocated across all Eligible Claimants and the ensuing ratio will be used to calculate individual distributions on a pro rata basis.” Your share therefore depends on how many points your documented harm earns and on how many other people file. No portion of the EIG fund will “ever revert” to those defendants or their insurers.

Before anyone is paid, the fund carries the costs. Class counsel — Berger Montague, Miller Thibodeaux Dysart Veith & Paschal and Burns Charest — are asking for one-third of the gross fund, “nearly $20 million,” plus about $3.6 million in expenses, administration costs and a $5,000 service award for each class representative, according to the Daily News. The paper calculated that, if approved, that would leave about $36.25 million for claimants. The judge decides the fee at or after the December 14, 2026 hearing.

When? No payment date has been announced in any document we read as of October 11, 2026. Under the EIG settlement agreement, money moves only after the “Effective Date”: the final approval order has to become final, including any appeals, and a separate “Bankruptcy Approval Order has been entered by the Bankruptcy Court and has become a final order.” Because the Effective Date cannot come before the December 14, 2026 hearing, payments in 2026 look unlikely, but no payment date has been announced.

To get paid: file a claim by November 3, 2026 at LimetreeBaySettlement.com or by mail. The notice requires “all requested information and documentation,” so gather what shows where you were in February to May 2021 — a lease or deed, utility bills, an employer letter — and anything showing the harm: cleaning or cistern costs, medical visits, receipts. Because payments are point-based, an undocumented claim may score lower; we could not read the claim form itself because the official site was blocked when we tried it.

To keep your right to sue on your own: mail a written exclusion to the settlement administrator, postmarked by October 27, 2026. “If you opt out of the settlements, then you cannot receive a settlement payment, but you will not be bound by the settlements.” To object: a written objection must be postmarked by the same date, October 27, 2026; you can only object if you stay in. Do nothing: you stay in the class, give up your claims against the settling defendants, and get nothing.

The final approval hearing is December 14, 2026 on the date set by the court. You do not have to attend. The notice asks people not to contact the court; questions go to the administrator at 1-888-859-9973. Settling does not end the case: “Litigation continues against the remaining Defendants,” and BP Products North America, which opposed the contractor settlements, is among the defendants that have not settled. Class counsel told the court they hope to present additional settlements, which would grow the fund.

The settlement is real. It appears on the federal court docket in Boynes v. Limetree Bay Ventures, the court appointed Epiq as administrator, and the court-authorized notice ran on PR Newswire on September 11, 2026. The only website named in the notice is LimetreeBaySettlement.com, and the only phone number is 1-888-859-9973. Anything else — a text asking for a fee, a “claim service” that wants a cut, a caller asking for your bank login — is not part of this settlement. Filing is free; legal fees come out of the fund.

One practical warning: the official site sits behind an aggressive security filter. When we tried to load it on October 11, 2026, it returned a block page from Epiq’s servers. If that happens to you, try another browser or network, or call the number above; do not switch to a look-alike site. Searches for this settlement also surface third-party “settlement list” pages; they are not the administrator and cannot file a claim for you.

What happened to the oil refinery in St. Croix? The plant on the south shore, run by HOVENSA from 1965 until it stopped processing crude in 2012, was being restarted by Limetree Bay in 2021. According to the United States’ complaint, “from approximately February 4, 2021 to approximately May 12, 2021, on at least four occasions comprising at least eleven days,” the refinery emitted hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and airborne oil droplets the EPA called “Flare Rainout.” On May 12, 2021, a fire engulfed the top of its only operating flare, and on May 14, 2021 the EPA issued a Clean Air Act emergency order prohibiting operation of the refinery. That government case, United States v. Limetree Bay Refining, is separate from this class settlement; the settlement is money for residents, not a 2021 deal.

Who owns Limetree Bay Refinery? Not Limetree. The refinery was sold in bankruptcy: by order dated December 21, 2021, the Houston bankruptcy court approved the sale, and according to a June 2022 Government House statement, “Title to the Purchased Assets was transferred to Port Hamilton at the time of closing” — Port Hamilton Refining and Transportation LLLP. Port Hamilton is not a defendant named in the settlement notice.

Is St. Croix refinery reopening? Not as of the most recent report we found. In May 2026, Port Hamilton’s director told an economic summit, “We will restart the refinery,” while the same V.I. Consortium report described the plant as idled and noted that “the reopening hinges on environmental compliance.” We found no restart date. A restart would not change this settlement; the claims concern the 2021 releases and the companies that ran the plant then.

Why are US refineries shutting down? That is a different question this settlement does not answer: the St. Croix plant was halted by an EPA emergency order after the 2021 incidents, not by a market closure. For national refinery capacity and closures, the U.S. Energy Information Administration is the official data source.