WILLEMSTAD - The government of Curaçao has informed Venezuela's national oil company PdVSA that it must return the 335,000 b/d Isla refinery in good condition and pay $26mn in debt for utility services before its operating lease expires in December.
The refinery should be "at least" in a "regular acceptable state of maintenance after so many years of operations, or better," the interim director of Curaçao´s state-owned refinery company RdK, Marcelino de Lannoy, said in an interview with Argus.
RdK says PdVSA has kept up with lease payments of $1.66mn per month but owes $26mn to local utility CRU for steam, water and electricity under a take-or-pay contract.
PdVSA has operated the refinery and associated Bullen Bay terminal under a long-term lease signed after Shell returned the facility to the local government in 1985.
Following at least two false starts, Curaçao is again looking for a new refinery operator. One unnamed potential partner recently conducted a site visit, and a second one is scheduled to arrive in June, RdK says. Non-binding proposals are expected in July. Among the companies that previously eyed the facility is Saudi Aramco´s US refining unit Motiva.
In recent years the refinery has been mostly shut down on a lack of feedstock, maintenance and utility services, threatening 2,000 local jobs, while activity at the Bullen Bay terminal has slowed to a trickle.
In early May Curaçao received a US Treasury license that would clear the way to contract a new partner for the refinery without running afoul of US sanctions on PdVSA.
The oil assets on Curaçao are part of PdVSA´s once-bustling logistical network in the Dutch Caribbean. Activity has dwindled in part because the Dutch legal jurisdiction has facilitated the seizure of Venezuelan assets by a multitude of creditors in recent years.
Isla and PdVSA officials could not be reached for comment.
Curaçao currently hosts an estimated 27,000 Venezuelan migrants, out of a population of 160,000, part of a region-wide refugee wave fueled by Venezuela's political and economic crisis. The Dutch government recently approved 24mn euros to help Curaçao and nearby Aruba cope with the migration flow.
