Curacao wants PDVSA to invest $1.5 bln in Isla refinery

October 24, 2012 5:03 PM

WILLEMSTAD - Curacao could extend or renegotiate a lease of its Isla refinery to Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA if the latter agrees to invest $1.5 billion to upgrade the World War One-era facility, the Caribbean island's top politician Helmin Wiels said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

 
The 335,000 barrel per day (bpd) Isla refinery, which is crucial to the Dutch island nation's economy, has faced years of complaints from residents and environmental activists over pollution, but PDVSA has been reluctant to invest in it.
 
"It is important to extend PDVSA's contract, but under certain conditions," Helmin Wiels, leader of the Sovereign
People party that won the largest block at last week's parliamentary elections, told Reuters. 
 
"But obviously if PDVSA is going to invest that amount it won't negotiate for 2019 (when the current contract expires). That level of investment would require at least 25 years to be sustainable." 
 
He said PDVSA could be invited to become a partner in a joint venture with the government of Curacao, which is a
semi-autonomous "constituent country" that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. 
 
Wiels' party, which is sympathetic to Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez, is in negotiations with other political parties to form a new government and choose a prime minister under the island's parliamentary system. 
 
This year a Curacao court ruled against a petition by local activists group SMOC to shut down the refinery on the grounds that toxic emissions were sickening residents. SMOC has said it will continue to put pressure on the refinery to either clean up its operations or shut down.
 
Wiels said shutting the refinery would constitute "economic sudden death" for the island, because Isla provides close to 10 percent of its GDP. 
 
Isla was originally opened in 1918 by Royal Dutch Shell  on the site of a former Willemstad slave market to
process Venezuela's first crude oil, and the refinery supplied the Allies in World War Two. 
   
In 1985 Shell sold it to Curacao for a symbolic $1, and the island quickly leased it to - which has made few major
investments to reduce emissions.
 
Wiels said his coalition may consider suing Shell for pollution, including indiscriminate dumping of carcinogenic
heavy metals, prior to 1985. 
 
"I'm not an expert, but I think the damage suffered by Curacao is on the order of $30 billion to $40 billion," he said,
adding such a trial would likely end up in Dutch courts.
 
The economy of Curacao, 40 miles (64 kms) off the Venezuelan coast, has become less dependent on refining in the last decade and wants to expand its banking, shipping and tourism sectors. 
 
But Isla remains a vital asset for PDVSA. It represents more than 10 percent of the company's global refining capacity, while a tank depot next to the facility can store up to 16 million barrels of crude and has become an important staging point for Venezuelan oil shipments to China. 
 
Unlike most coastal facilities in the OPEC member, the terminal and the neighboring island of Bullenbaai can receive large tankers, including VLCCs (very large crude carriers).
 
Source: Reuters

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