The possibility that the United States could secure long-term access to Venezuelan oil fields containing tens of billions of barrels may appear at first glance to be a story primarily about Washington and Caracas. For Curaçao, however, the implications could be considerable.
The timing is particularly significant.
Just days before reports emerged about advanced negotiations between Washington and Caracas, Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas announced that he intends to discuss Curaçao’s petroleum ambitions with both U.S. and Venezuelan authorities during the upcoming United Nations General Assembly.
At the same time, Curaçao Refinery Utilities (CRU) has obtained an environmental operating permit for Bullenbaai, while the Curaçao government is openly pursuing the restoration of oil-related activity with Venezuela.
Now the geopolitical environment around Curaçao appears to be changing rapidly.
Axios reported Thursday that the Trump administration is discussing an American stake in more than a dozen Venezuelan oil fields containing approximately 90 billion barrels of proven reserves. Reuters subsequently reported, based on its own sources, that 17 fields are being discussed and that Washington wants long-term access to Venezuelan crude, with American companies potentially developing the fields.
For Curaçao, the important question is no longer simply whether Venezuelan oil will return to international markets.
The question is: what role will Curaçao play when it does?
Bullenbaai suddenly becomes more strategically interesting
Curaçao possesses something that could become increasingly valuable if Venezuelan production expands: a large oil terminal close to the Venezuelan coast.
Bullenbaai can accommodate large vessels and historically formed part of the logistical infrastructure surrounding Venezuela’s petroleum industry.
The Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten has already identified the potential opportunity. In its March Economic Bulletin, CBCS said renewed Venezuelan oil refining and trading could generate positive spillovers for Curaçao and specifically identified Bullenbaai as a potential storage and distribution terminal because of its strategic location and ability to accommodate large vessels
Curaçao has already begun participating again, although on a limited scale.
The Dutch government confirmed earlier this year that some recent shipments stored at Bullenbaai contained Venezuelan oil. At the same time, The Hague cautioned against concluding that Curaçao had already regained an important position in international Venezuelan oil trading.
That distinction matters.
Bullenbaai has potential. Potential is not the same thing as business.
Curaçao has an opportunity — but no guarantee
If American companies begin investing heavily in Venezuelan oil fields, production could eventually increase considerably.
That oil has to go somewhere.
It must be stored, blended, transferred between vessels, transported to refineries and distributed to international markets. Those activities require terminals, ports, tankers, service companies, technical expertise and financial and logistical support.
Curaçao could compete for part of that business.
Its geographic location is difficult to replicate. Bullenbaai is roughly a short voyage from Venezuela and already has petroleum infrastructure.
But Curaçao should not assume geography alone will guarantee success.
American companies entering Venezuela could establish direct transportation routes to the United States. Venezuelan ports could be upgraded. Competing Caribbean terminals could pursue the same business.
If Curaçao wants Bullenbaai to become part of a new Venezuelan-American petroleum corridor, agreements and commercial relationships need to be established while that new system is still being designed.
That makes Pisas’ planned conversations with Washington and Caracas more important than they appeared only days ago.
OFAC changes are another important signal
There is another development that deserves attention.
On August 27, the same day the reports about the negotiations emerged, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control amended a series of Venezuela-related general licenses.
They include authorizations concerning Venezuelan-origin oil and petrochemical products, transactions involving Venezuela’s oil and gas sector, the supply of U.S.-origin diluents and certain transactions involving state oil company PDVSA.
This does not automatically authorize every petroleum transaction involving Curaçao.
But it demonstrates how rapidly Washington’s policy toward Venezuela’s energy sector is evolving.
For Curaçao, understanding exactly what is permitted under the changing American sanctions and licensing regime will be essential. Banks, shipping companies, insurers and international energy companies will not participate simply because Curaçao wants the business. They will require legal certainty.
That is why Curaçao’s previous contacts with OFAC could prove important.
Bullenbaai may be more important than restarting the refinery
For years, discussion about Curaçao’s petroleum industry has largely revolved around one question: will the refinery restart?
The emerging Venezuelan-American relationship suggests Curaçao may need to think more broadly.
Bullenbaai could potentially generate economic activity even without returning immediately to the traditional refinery model.
Storage, transshipment, blending, bunkering, maritime services and other petroleum logistics could create business around the terminal.
That distinction could be important because rebuilding or modernizing refinery operations requires enormous investment, while some terminal activities can potentially be developed independently.
CBCS has specifically pointed toward oil storage and related port services as areas where Curaçao could benefit from renewed Venezuelan petroleum activity.
Environmental credibility will matter
The environmental permit recently granted to CRU therefore arrives at an interesting moment.
Pisas has argued that Curaçao needs environmental regulation not only to protect residents but also to establish credibility with international companies considering investments on the island.
That argument becomes more relevant if major American energy companies begin looking at Venezuela and its surrounding logistics infrastructure.
International companies will examine environmental permits, emissions standards, liability, infrastructure condition, political stability and regulatory certainty before committing capital.
Curaçao cannot market Bullenbaai internationally simply as an old oil terminal waiting to be used again.
It must market it as a modern, regulated and commercially reliable energy hub.
There is also a risk for Curaçao
The U.S.-Venezuela negotiations should therefore not automatically be celebrated as a victory for Curaçao.
There is another possible outcome.
Venezuela could increase production, American companies could enter the market, and the majority of the crude could move directly from Venezuelan terminals to U.S. refineries without generating significant activity in Curaçao.
That scenario is entirely possible.
Reuters reports that Washington is seeking guaranteed U.S. access to production from the Venezuelan fields being negotiated. The legal structure could involve leases, tenders or other arrangements allowing American producers to develop individual fields.
If those companies establish their supply chains without Curaçao, entering them later could become much more difficult.
That is why Curaçao's negotiations need to focus on concrete commercial roles rather than simply political support for reopening oil trade.
A rare window is opening
For decades, Curaçao’s refinery was closely connected to Venezuela because geography made the relationship economically logical.
Politics, sanctions, deterioration of Venezuela’s petroleum industry and the closure of refinery operations largely broke that relationship.
Now geopolitics may be creating another opening.
Washington wants secure oil supplies. Venezuela needs investment, infrastructure and markets. Curaçao has a strategically located deep-water petroleum terminal and decades of experience servicing the industry.
Those interests do not automatically produce a deal.
But they create something Curaçao has not had for years: leverage.
The challenge for the Pisas government will be converting that geographic advantage into contracts, investment and employment before others do.
If Washington and Caracas are genuinely designing a new architecture for Venezuelan oil exports, Curaçao needs to make sure Bullenbaai is part of that conversation from the beginning.
Otherwise, tankers carrying Venezuelan crude could once again pass close to Curaçao — while the economic opportunity sails past the island.