WILLEMSTAD - Refineria di Korsou (RdK), Curaçao Refinery since the moment it took over the operations of the refinery, and the Bullen Bay terminal has covered all operational costs, including salaries of the employees working at these two locations, from its financial reserves. These reserves have their limit. For that reason, it is important for RdK, on one side to find ways to create income from the installations and on the other side to lower operational costs. This is the reason why the project Bullen Bay was initiated.

Project Bullen Bay entails that the terminal will be back in operation and at the same time start a quick public tender process to find companies that will store their crude oil at the terminal. All this while RdK is pending the takeover of the properties by the operator.

During the last months, RdK performed an inspection of the facilities at Bullen Bay. It became known that the installations have been inoperative for the last 3 years and without maintenance. This means that the installations were in such bad shape that they almost became completely inoperative. A good example to illustrate this is that the infrastructure and the equipment to extinguish fire, which works with saltwater, have eroded enormously due to the water that remained in it. Also, the oil spill response system was not maintained properly. Several tanks had leakage or no cover.

That is why RdK, to generate income from Bullen Bay, had to invest in the terminal.

RdK invested 5 million guilders in the terminal to make it operational again. The objective is to have it ready by June, to start receiving oil tankers for storage. This investment creates the possibility to commercialize a storage capacity of 5.8 million oil barrels. The terminal’s maximum capacity is 15 million barrels. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the investments should be recovered in a short period up until the new operator takes over the terminal.

RdK’s Project Management Team (PMO) has received a mandate from the government to start the process of commercializing Bullen Bay for storage purposes while they finalize the agreement with the new operator. PMO is initializing the public tender process which should result in serious and reliable companies that will store their crude oil at Bullen Bay. The intention is to reach an agreement with several companies. The objective is to finish this in June. That same month these companies can start storing their crude oil.