WILLEMSTAD – PAR parliamentary leader Quincy Girigorie says the government's latest strategy for the former refinery infrastructure confirms that Curaçao lost valuable time by pursuing refinery operators instead of concentrating earlier on bunkering and fuel blending at Bullenbaai and Emmastad.
In a statement issued Monday, Girigorie argued that the decision to have 2Bays concentrate on bunkering and blending effectively brings Curaçao back to a strategy proposed several years ago.
According to Girigorie, Chonky De Lannooy established Fuel Farms B.V. in 2021 and proposed that Refineria di Kòrsou (RdK), together with interested local companies, focus on developing bunkering and blending activities.
The PAR leader said the Pisas Cabinet instead continued looking for companies interested in restarting refinery operations, including Curaçao Petroleum Refinery (CPR), and later pursued discussions involving Oryx.
Girigorie described those decisions as evidence of a lack of long-term vision and argued that Curaçao is now returning to essentially the same commercial model proposed five years ago.
The government recently indicated that the focus surrounding the former refinery assets is shifting toward activities that can generate revenue without immediately restarting full-scale refining operations.
Girigorie acknowledged that concentrating on bunkering and blending is, in itself, a sound decision. His criticism centers on how long it took the government to arrive at that conclusion.
He also pointed to the condition of the storage infrastructure at Bullenbaai.
According to information Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas provided to Parliament, only around 25 percent of Bullenbaai's capacity is currently operational because many of the remaining storage tanks require repairs. Girigorie said Pisas indicated that repairing each tank could cost approximately ANG 5 million.
PAR argues that this illustrates the financial consequences of the decisions made during the past five years. Restoring storage capacity will require substantial investment before 2Bays can fully exploit Bullenbaai's commercial potential.
Girigorie said the government should now concentrate on developing a realistic petroleum strategy based on Curaçao's existing infrastructure and expertise rather than again searching for foreign investors promising large-scale refinery operations.
He called on Pisas to learn from what PAR considers previous mistakes and involve local companies with experience and financial capacity.
According to Girigorie, Curaçao still has an opportunity to turn Bullenbaai and Emmastad into profitable energy and logistics assets, but doing so will require coordination between government-owned companies and a clear long-term strategy.
The statements represent PAR's assessment of the government's refinery policy and its previous negotiations; the party's allegations concerning individual companies and past proposals remain its political characterization of those events.