Construction of NexLube's $120 million (originally planned $75 million) 24.000.000 gallon used oil recycling plant at the Port of Tampa is on hold because of financial problems, officials said last Tuesday. Company officials say that construction costs are exceeding its budgeted costs and that the company recently stopped construction for up to three to six months while it renegotiates contracts to shore up the project's finances. Plans were for the plant to open in 2014,

The re refining plant, now 60 percent completed, was designed to produce some 20.000.000 gallons per year of Group II lube base oil in three viscosity grades: 85, 150 and 330 as well as some 4.000.000 gallons per year of asphalt and gas oil as by products. The re-refining plant was to have attached a blending plant with the capacity to produce finished lubricants and package up to 24.000.000 gallons finished lubricants per year.

In mid 2012, NexLube Tampa LLC announced that it started building the 54,400-square-foot $75 million re-refinery and blending plant and 9,200-square-foot office building on 12.3 acres at the port's Pendola Point, signing a 20-year lease with the port authority.

When the NexLube deal was first announced in 2012, it was expected to create up to 75 high-paying jobs and 100 indirect jobs in the Tampa Bay area.

Last month, the company's former chief operating officer, Enzio D'Angelo, filed suit against NexLube in Hillsborough circuit court amid an ugly split between the two parties.

NexLube Tampa LLC is a Florida-based company operating out of Boca Raton Florida. NexLube opened in February 2010.