WILLEMSTAD - According to Marcelino de Lannoy of Refineria di Korsou, Curaçao Refinery (RdK), PdVSA is refusing to provide the state and interested operators selected by the RdK with important operational date. Refineria Isla Curaçao, the current operator of the refinery, is a wholly owned subsidiary of state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PdVSA),

This puts the Arawak Project, the search of Curaçao and government-owned RdK for a new operator of the Isla, at risk or at least seriously impeded. Potential operators who are interested, if the lease contract with PdVSA is terminated in 2020, want to be able to visit the refinery at Schottegat and also receive specific operational data about the Isla.

Interim director RdK, Marcelino "Chonky" de Lannoy, said during a radio interview that he is somewhat astonished. The lease agreement requires cooperation. RdK does not demand confidential financial information but believes that sharing operational data is part of the process of finding another company to replace Refineria Isla Curaçao.

De Lannoy cannot imagine that there are people at Refineria Isla - most of whom, like him, are Curaçaoans - trying to stop the important process of keeping the refinery open after 2019.

Refineria Isla and RdK clashed last week, after De Lannoy had publicly declared to be concerned about the poor state of maintenance of the refinery - owned by Curaçao and leased to PdVSA. The Venezuelan company denied this emphatically.