WILLEMSTAD – MAN faction leader Giselle Mc William has questioned Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas over his statement that the storage tanks at Bullenbaai are currently being used at maximum capacity, saying her own observations of the oil terminal appear to show a different picture.
Mc William raised the issue following Tuesday’s public meeting of the Curaçao Parliament concerning developments surrounding VIGOR and operations related to the refinery.
According to the parliamentarian, Pisas told Parliament that the tanks at Bullenbaai are now being used at their “maximum capacity.”
Mc William subsequently challenged that statement, saying that what she recently observed while flying over Bullenbaai did not appear consistent with the impression that the facility is operating at full capacity.
“If I had not flown over Bullenbaai, I would have believed that Bullenbaai was back in its glory days,” Mc William wrote in a Facebook post following the parliamentary meeting.
She said she asked Pisas during the meeting to clarify exactly what he meant by “maximum capacity.”
According to Mc William, from what she could observe, several tanks appeared to be empty, while many others seemed to be in poor condition.
Her comments raise questions about whether the Prime Minister was referring to the maximum capacity of tanks that are currently operational rather than the total installed storage capacity at Bullenbaai.
Mc William did not provide technical data showing how many tanks are currently operational, how much petroleum product is being stored at the terminal or what percentage of Bullenbaai’s total storage capacity is presently being utilized.
Her remarks therefore represent her observations and questions regarding the Prime Minister’s statement rather than independent confirmation of the terminal’s current utilization rate.
The condition and use of Bullenbaai have become increasingly important as the government seeks to restore economic activity at Curaçao’s former refinery and oil-storage facilities. The government has repeatedly presented renewed activity at the strategic Bullenbaai terminal as an important part of efforts to revitalize Curaçao’s energy sector.
Mc William is now seeking more precise information from Pisas on what constitutes “maximum capacity” and how many of the tanks at Bullenbaai are actually available and being used.