WILLEMSTAD - During these last few days, there has been an attempt to create the impression in the media that the owner of the refinery installations, Refineria di Korsou (Curaçao Refinery RdK) and the government do not want to enter into a tolling agreement with another party to refinery crude. These parties were also accused of not taking this issue seriously seeing the precarious situation in which the refinery finds itself.

According to the RdK this is not true. RdK as the owner of the installations of the refinery is doing its utmost to find a strategic partner to modernize, manage and operate the refinery when the current contract with PDVSA expires at the end of this year. At the same time, RdK is doing its utmost to see how much more they can help the current operator to resume the refining process notwithstanding all the challenges it is facing due to the Venezuelan financial crisis and all the sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump of the U.S.

According to RdK in their press release in reality only the current operator, which is the subsidiary company of PDVSA, Refineria Isla, can enter into a tolling agreement for the supply of crude oil and the delivery of its products. RdK says that it cannot meddle with these types of businesses. Notwithstanding, RdK says, it will make sure that the operator will get these business proposals as soon as possible to see which one it is interested in. All RdK can do is act as a third party. The public company hopes that there could be an agreement for the refinery to continue operating.