Motiva top pick for Curacao refinery contract

Saudi Arabia´s US refining company Motiva Enterprises is in talks with Curacao to manage the island´s 335,000 b/d Isla refinery that has been largely abandoned by Venezuelan operator PdV.

Curacao´s state-owned RdK declined comment on the talks but a senior executive close to the talks confirmed that Motiva was selected as the preferred bidder for a contract with RdK to manage the refinery.

RdK said today it would "adhere to the non-disclosure agreement with the third party (until) an MOU has been agreed upon," and is "diligently working towards an agreement no later than mid-January" with the preferred bidder.

The Houston office of Motiva declined to comment.

PdV operates the refinery under a long-term lease that expires in December 2019. The century-old facility barely operated this year because of a lack of feedstock, maintenance and domestic utility services. But the Venezuelan state-owned company continues to use the Bullen Bay terminal on the Dutch-controlled island for export logistics and storage. A recent cargo of Urals crude passed through the deepwater port on its way to Cuba.

PdV has not commented on Curacao´s plan to find another operator with a possible "early step-in" before the Venezuelan company´s lease runs out next December.

Motiva, which is wholly owned by state-owned Saudi Refining, a unit of Aramco, owns the largest US refinery, the 630,000 b/d Port Arthur facility on the US Gulf coast.

Motiva´s reported interest in the Isla refinery has historical significance. The Anglo-Dutch major built the refinery to process newly discovered Venezuelan crude around Lake Maracaibo, and ran the facility until it was transferred to RdK in 1985, when PdV began its long-term operating lease. Shell had been a 50pc partner in Motiva until the joint venture was dissolved in May 2017, leaving the company in the full control of Aramco.

For its part, Aramco has been aggressively pursuing opportunities to expand its refining capacity abroad, signing deals in Indonesia, Malaysia and India. The Saudi company has said it aims to increase its overall refining capacity to 8mn-10mn b/d from 5.4mn b/d — although it has not provided a target date.

The Saudi firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Curacao refinery.