WILLEMSTAD - Caribbean Petroleum Refinery has been approved by the shareholder of Refineria di Kòrsou (RdK) as the company that will continue in the negotiations with RdK, aimed at securing a partner that manages and operates the oil facilities of Curaçao. A negotiation committee will be installed by the Government and by RdK, with the goal to finalize the negotiations and reach an agreement by September 1st, 2022.
Caribbean Petroleum Refinery
Caribbean Petroleum Refinery is a consortium that consists of six companies from the United States and one from Brazil. This consortium will have strategic alliances with several major oil and gas companies. Caribbean Petroleum Refinery aspires a lease of 30 years with the possibility of an extension of an additional 10 years. The company projects an investment of US$650 during the first 3 years, which is intended for the necessary repair and revision work and to safely start-up the facilities of the refinery. This will create approximately 2000 contractor jobs. Caribbean Petroleum Refinery plans to employ 800+ employees directly. Our refinery will be converted to run-on gas in order to comply with the environmental norms. The terminal at Bullenbaai will be put into operation immediately. Furthermore, it is important to mention that the vocational school of the refinery will be reopened and, as part of its corporate social responsibility, the company is committed towards investing in sport development and schools on the island.
The selection process
At the end of last year RdK installed a committee that was mandated to search for an operator for our oil facilities. At the start of this trajectory the committee issued a request for an Expression of Interest from serious potential partners who were interested in the management and operations of our oil facilities. The aim was for selected parties to submit a Binding Proposal no later than at the end of February 2022.
Out of the 53 companies that expressed their interest to manage and operate the oil facilities, a select number of companies were selected by the committee to continue on with the process aimed at finding a strategic partner. The chosen companies were enabled to conduct the preliminary evaluations, among others by means of information included in the initial Teaser document which these companies obtained alongside a bundle of documents containing relevant information regarding the facilities. The companies were granted access to the virtual data room of RdK, where they were able to obtain relevant information regarding the oil facilities. During a number of weeks site visits were taking place at the refinery and the terminal located at Bullenbaai enabling the selected companies to conduct their due diligence. As part of the due diligence, presentations and meetings where held related amongst others to operations and maintenance, human resources, finance, commerce and environmental regulations.
At the end of last February, RdK moved the date on which the final proposals were to have been submitted to the end of March. RdK did so upon the request of several of the companies that needed more time to finalize their due diligence in order to submit their proposals. Three (3) companies submitted their definitive offer for the management and operations of our oil facilities when they handed in their Binding Proposal to RdK. The RdK team in charge of the search and selection of a strategic partner for our oil facilities swiftly continued with their efforts to evaluate the offers that were submitted, in order to immediately after present the results of the evaluation and their advice to the Director of RdK, the Supervisory Board of Directors and the shareholder of RdK.
Last week all formal approvals were obtained to select Caribbean Petroleum Refinery as the preferred bidder and to continue with the negotiation phase.
Negotiations
As of this week, the negotiation team of the Government and of RdK will start its negotiations with Caribbean Petroleum Refinery. Separate ancillary agreements will also be negotiated with the Government-owned companies Curoil, Aqualectra, KTK and Selikor.
The aim remains unaltered, meaning that by no later than September 1st, 2022 an agreement should be reached and immediately after begin with the start-up of operations of the oil facilities of Curaçao.
