Curacao has again asked the US to let it do business with Venezuela's state oil company PdV and reopen its shuttered Isla refinery, a government official told Argus this week.
Curacao needs the US approval to process crude from neighboring Venezuela, but the request made "a few weeks ago" has not yet been granted by Washington's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the official said.
The 335,000 b/d Isla refinery has been shuttered since 2019 when a long-term lease to PdV expired. An OFAC license for Curacao to process Venezuelan crude expired in December 2024. Prior efforts to restart the refinery have been set back by Washington's economic sanctions on Caracas.
Government-owned company 2Bays Energy said earlier this month it is seeking an agreement similar to one given by OFAC to US major Chevron to conduct limited transactions with PdV at the refinery.
"We are encouraged by the permit to Chevron, and by the fact that our request to OFAC has not been immediately rejected," the official said. "The infrastructure, the partners, and the workforce are ready — we are simply waiting for the green light from Washington."
The reopening of the refinery would run counter to a regional trend that saw failed attempts to maintain or restart aging refineries in Trinidad and Tobago, and the US Virgin Islands, while the Dominican Republic and Jamaica have contemplated the future of their refineries that were once co-owned by PdV.
A permit from Washington would also allow PdV to supply crude to settle $450mn in outstanding debts to Curacao, which is a self-governing department of the Netherlands.
Curacao terminated negotiations in February 2023 with US-Brazilian consortium CPR to restart the facility. It earlier failed to reach an agreement for Isla with several firms, including China's GZE, Germany's Klesch and a consortium led by Dutch contractor Corc.
