WILLEMSTAD - Employees of the Isla refinery on strike this morning have created blockades on various roads in Willemstad. As a result, the morning rush hour was seriously disrupted. Last night staff members blocked all the government offices in the city center.

A run arose at the petrol stations on the island because many drivers feared that the strikes will lead to distribution problems at the gas station. Oil distributor Curoil says that it has enough stock to be able to fuel both Curaçao and Bonaire for three months.

It has been restless in Curaçao all week. Strikes and protest demonstrations on the public road of the waste management company and teachers already disrupted traffic. The demonstrators protest against austerity. The government is still not able to balance the budget and is awaiting a financial instruction, a sort of measure, from the Kingdom government in The Hague.

The Isla staff acted because the acquisition of the refinery by Motiva, a US oil multinational, failed yesterday. After months of negotiation, the Americans pulled out. Earlier, a takeover by a Chinese oil company failed.

According to Motiva, corruption in Curaçao is the reason to drop out, but analysts say that the crisis in Venezuela and the sanctions of the Americans are the main reasons

The Isla, once built by Shell and exploited by the Dutch until 1985, is owned by the Curaçao government. This leases the refinery to the Venezuelan state-owned company PdVSA. That lease contract ends on 31 December of this year.

PdVSA would like to continue after 2019 but does not have the funds to modernize the refinery. Moreover, the refinery has been inoperative for almost a year because the Venezuelans can no longer supply oil due to the crisis in their own country. The staff now focuses on maintenance.

An Isla spokesman denies that the refinery is inoperative because Venezuela is no longer supplying oil, but points to seizures by Americans of oil tankers in the port of Curaçao. That would make a start of the Isla impossible.

Prime Minister Rhuggenaath assured the demonstrators last night that the search for a new operator of the refinery continues, but many people on the island take into account a premature end of the oil industry in Curaçao.

The spokesperson for the Isla says that the refinery can still pay the salaries, but the refinery will not make it to the end of the year if the situation persists.

Minister of Justice Girigorie said after the strikes last week to no longer accept disruptions of public order.