<article><p class="lead">Curacao has selected a US company as the preferred bidder for a long-term contract to run its oil refinery, stepping in before Venezuelan state-owned PdV's lease expires in December 2019.</p><p>RdK, the Curacao government company that owns the refinery, will negotiate with the unnamed company with the intention of signing a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2019, according to a statement issued yesterday.</p><p>Depending on PdV's willingness to cooperate in the transition, a restart of the refinery could begin in mid-2019, according to a senior local official close to the ongoing negotiations. This "early step-in" would mean the US company would overlap with the final months of PdV's operating lease.</p><p>The name of the US company was not disclosed. The firm would likely require a temporary waiver from the US Treasury to work alongside PdV, which is subject to US sanctions.</p><p>Dutch-controlled Curacao has been struggling to restart the refinery throughout 2018. PdV has stopped supplying crude and conducting maintenance at the facility, a consequence of its rapidly declining domestic oil production and financial straits. But the Venezuelan company continues to utilize the Bullen Bay terminal, which is also part of its long-term lease, for storage and export logistics.</p><p>Curacao is anxious to end its tumultuous relationship with PdV, whose <a href="http://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/1803148">extensive debts</a> have triggered repeated court-ordered seizures of its oil cargoes and tankers across the Dutch Caribbean in recent years. In the most far-reaching case, US independent ConocoPhillips levied attachments on PdV's Dutch Caribbean assets in May, effectively freezing the oil business on the islands before a settlement was reached in August. But smaller <a href="http://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/1801042">creditors continue to pursue PdV cargoes</a> in an effort to collect unpaid debts.</p><p>The restart of the refinery, which accounts for some 2,000 local jobs in Curacao, will also depend on repairs to related utility services on the island.</p><p>The century-old refinery has a nameplate crude processing capacity of 330,000 b/d, but normally operated at around 220,000 b/d.</p><p>PdV has not commented on the Curacao refinery or the island's plan to bring on a new operator.</p><p>The refinery talks are taking place amid an investigation into alleged bribery by one of the parties seeking the refinery contract from RdK, whose director was given a mandatory leave of absence.</p></article>
