Not everyone in Curaçao agrees with Klesch deal for refinery

WILLEMSTAD - “If we don’t renegotiate with the Klesch Group quickly, Curaçao runs the risk that five million square meters of land in the port area will fall into the hands of third parties,” said opposition MP Charles Cooper of the MFK party.

Cooper refers to the areas of the Isla refinery and Bullen Bay, which are the property of the Isla refinery and that have been given leasehold to the Klesch Group for sixty years. The parliamentarian fears that Klesch will use these sites as a deposit to obtain financing for an upgrade of the refinery.

At the end of December last year, owner Refineria di Kòrsou (RdK) concluded a deal with the Klesch Group as the new operator of the refinery and the transshipment at Bullen Bay. The contract with the Venezuelan oil company PdVSA expired on January 1, 2020, after 30 years.

“It works like that all over the world with such deals,” says Cooper. “If Klesch does not meet their payment obligations, the financiers can have the land seized. Then they automatically become the owner of the leased property. As leaseholders they can offer the assets at the auction and sell them to third parties.”

Although an initial contract has been signed between RdK and Klesch to purchase the Isla refinery and Bullen Bay, the MP thinks that this transaction can be stopped. “As long as there has not been a closing, says Cooper.

Another danger Cooper sees in the transaction with Klesch is that the signed contract does not state how many current employees Klesch will take over. Cooper fears that more than half of the 900 employees of the refinery will not get a contract with Klesch. The employees now have a temporary contract with Curaçao Refinery Utilities (CRU), which expires on 30 June. The contract with CRU is to prevent that employees will not have any income during the transition period.

Concerned citizens

At the beginning of January, Cooper submitted a letter on behalf of 600 residents to Curaçao's governor Lucille George-Wout. The letter argues for the dissolution of the deal with Klesch. Cooper had already given the same letter to the parliament on December 30. The MP wants to organize a demonstration soon, because the government has not yet answered the letter.

Cooper's party colleague, Gilmar Pisas MP, hoped that the Dutch delegation would pronounce on the deal during the Interparliamentary Kingdom Consultation which was held recently. Member of the Second Chamber Ronald van Raak expressed his concerns about the Klesch deal in an opinion piece, because the Netherlands “has had no good experiences with Klesch”. He encourages the Curaçao parliamentarians to get access to the contracts.

Minister of Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops emphasized during his visit to Curaçao in January that he will not give an opinion on the deal with Klesch.




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