WILLEMSTAD - CPR, the Caribbean Petroleum Refinery Holding, has been ordered to pay over eight million US dollars to the operator of Bullenbaai, Curaçao Refinery Utilities CRU. Additionally, the holding must make monthly payments of over 170 thousand dollars starting from July 16th, as long as the current tank is in use. This ruling was made by the court in Willemstad yesterday in summary proceedings. 

The decision is based on the court's evaluation, where CRU's claims were largely granted based on the analysis of facts and legal arguments. The court has determined that there is no creditor's default and that CPR's arguments regarding faulty tanks and unforeseen circumstances do not hold up. Creditor's default is a legal term referring to a situation in which a creditor, the one expecting payment or performance, fails to fulfill their own obligations. 

Furthermore, the court granted the claim based on the cooperation agreement, as CPR's defense was not sufficiently substantiated. Given these considerations, the court substantially honored CRU's claims and ruled against CPR, resulting in a verdict of payment and legal costs. 

Facts 

In August 2022, CRU and CPR entered into a storage agreement, in which CRU provided eleven storage tanks to CPR at Bullenbaai, with a monthly fee of $0.18 per barrel of storage capacity. 

CPR subleased a portion of this capacity to Knob for $0.90 per barrel per month. Starting from September 2022, CPR utilized one tank for the storage of 500,000 barrels of fuel oil. Payments were made for the months from August to October 2022, but payments have since been outstanding, resulting in a total amount owed of over eight million dollars. 

In October 2022, RDK, the owner of the refinery, CRU, and CPR signed a cooperation agreement, which obligated CPR to perform certain tasks. Costs were reimbursed in 2022, but since January 2023, the costs remained unpaid, accumulating to a total of over half a million guilders. Attempts by CRU to receive payment were unsuccessful, and ultimately, CRU terminated both agreements as of July 16, 2023, a move accepted by CPR.