Motiva Enterprises named in breach of contract suit

A company is suing after a refinery fails to comply with terms of the contract.

Crest Energy Partners LP filed a lawsuit Oct. 3 in the District Court of Jefferson County 60th District against Motiva Enterprises LLC, citing breach of contract, promissory estoppel, negligent misrepresentation and quantum meruit. 

The complaint states that in October 2011 Motiva Enterprises contacted Crest Energy Partners to provide equipment and personnel to clean and remove petroleum products from storage tanks at Motiva's refinery in Port Arthur.

According to the complaint, in November 2011 Motiva presented a bill of sale to Crest Energy agreeing to convey approximately 71,000 barrels of petroleum product referred to as 'recovered material' and obligated Motiva to provide Crest with 20,000 barrels of light cycle oil to facilitate the removal of the recovered material.

Crest says that after executing the bill of sale, they began performance of the contract obligations by providing the necessary equipment and labor to complete cleaning and removal of the tanks. Crest alleges that during the process, they became aware that two tanks contained twice the volume of products as represented by Motiva in the bill of sale, causing Crest to incur significant expenses and costs, including increased labor and overage charges.

Crest also alleges that despite repeated requests for the contracted light cycle oil, Motiva continually refused to provide Crest with the oil.

Crest Energy is seeking damages in the amount of $10,000,000, plus costs and attorney's fees. They are being represented by attorneys Brenton J. Allison of Gilman & Allison LLP and Paxton Crew of The Crew Law Firm PC.

District Court of Jefferson County Case No. B194865.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed in the District Court of Jefferson County. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt, and it only represents one side of the story.