“This is for the ones that don’t understand the deal with Klesch and pretend that we sold our heritage for $ 1,-.” – A counter-statement:
This is for the ones who don’t understand the Klesch contrast program provided by IMOC for $ 5.- (+400%) maintaining our heritage:
The description of Curacao’s dire economic position is correct, and I have nothing to add to that. But the explanation out of this recession is very poor. Outsourcing the refinery revenues and margins means the farmer is butchering his only cow that gives milk.
ISLA Refinery – like the 15-year average refineries in the US – can earn refinery margins between $7 and $12 per barrel which means in this case $500 + million annual income for the island Curacao.
Saying that the oil business is in a downward spiral is wishful thinking by the environmentalists. Saudi Aramco, the world’s most valuable company just launched 5% of its stock to the public. Aramco alone has a combined value of Apple, Google, Exxon, Walmart, Citibank, and General Electric. The last year Forbes 500 companies - from the top 10 were 9 petroleum-related. It will take at least half a century to change that noticeable. One billion cars on this planet are powered by gasoline or diesel engines. 30 million more are added every year. The whole chemical, pharmaceuticals, agriculture industries worldwide are dependable to oil and gas. These companies will not change their business model immediately, because a 16-year-old Swedish girl has a dream.
Oil and gas production figures show steady growth over the decades – the US alone produced 5 million bbls/day in the year 2000, 10 million bbls/day in the year 2010 and produces 15 million bbls/day in 2020 (today)….
Curacao has a historic chance to play a major role as a supplier of refined petroleum products today, because the biggest oil companies which used to dominate the Middle America market are absent: Shell and PDVSA. 1.8 million per day refining capacity is short, because of refinery closings and Venezuela low production – while the population of the Caribbean has doubled during the last 50 years. This one-time opportunity to fill the refining gap will never come back for Curacao. Every day that ISLA is not producing anything, is a double loss – no money in the cashier and a lost opportunity. Since the refinery started to idle in May 2018, Curacao (RdK) lost already USDollars 504 million in revenues for crude oil processing alone. Not to count missed profits from refined petroleum products sales, because refining is a value-added process.
The “tips” of $26 million/year Klesch Group is offering to the Curacao people are a charity in the oil business. RdK got this already during the last 100 years from Shell and PDVSA. And they devastated the plant environmentally on land, sea, and air. This will continue when ISLA is outsourced again to a foreign company. And at the end of the plant’s life – Curacao is left with a piece of garbage like Aruba, Antigua and many other places in the Caribbean. Then Curacao will not have the money to clean the place.
Coming to the spirit of 2010. Curacao became independent from Holland within the Kingdom. What does that mean? There could be many interpretations, but one very important is:
Self-Determination and Sovereign Thinking.
Stopping to lean on strong shoulders like Shell and PDVSA, when the island and it’s people can do it themselves. And they have proved that they can do it.
RdK Director Delannoy explained in his latest Curacao Chronicle YouTube interview on the question of why ISLA Refinery personnel (workers) cannot take over the refinery (like in Trinidad) because:
- “The refinery workers are capable yes – but they don’t have the qualification to do the commercialization”, meaning they do not have experience in marketing ISLA’s refined petroleum products in the Caribbean/Middle America market.
- “ISLA does not have the $500 million financing capability/banking to buy crude oil for their processing.”
There is a company with name IMOC N.V. in Curacao, which belongs, or is in the process to belong to the ISLA refinery workers and they are fulfilling the two qualification points better than the Klesch Group – and they are 100% local people. They have the market experience – other than Klesch – and they have the $500 million to buy the crude and upgrade the refinery to make it environmentally compatible as well.
Curacao people FIRST. Sorry Klesch.
