WILLEMSTAD - The Prime Minister of Curaçao Eugene Rhuggenaath paid a visit to the island’s refinery on Tuesday and reported that he was ‘very satisfied’ that the transfer of ownership to the Klesch Group was going ‘according to plan’.

In a notice posted on his Facebook page, Rhuggenaath said that he was given a progress report by Jessica Russel, the General Manager of the Curaçao Refinery Unit (CRU) and he believed ‘everything looks like we will meet the deadlines’.

Klesch signed an agreement with Curacao’s state-run refining company, Refineria di Korsou (RdK), in late December to take over the operation of the 335,000-barrels-a-day (b/d) refinery and storage facilities.

Petroleos de Venezuela SA’s (PDVSA) contract to operate the refinery expired at the end of last year. The refinery is now in the hands of the local company Curaçao Refinery Utility (CRU) to prepare for the takeover of Klesch Group.