Curacao to PdV: Fix refinery, pay debt by Dec

Dutch-controlled Curacao has informed Venezuela's national oil company PdV that it must return the 335,000 b/d Isla refinery in good condition and pay $26mn in debt for utility services before its operating lease expires in December.

The refinery should be "at least" in a "regular acceptable state of maintenance after so many years of operations, or better," the interim director of Curacao´s state-owned refinery company RdK, Marcelino de Lannoy, told Argus.

RdK says PdV has kept up with lease payments of $1.66mn per month but owes $26mn to local utility CRU for steam, water and electricity under a take-or-pay contract.

PdV has operated the refinery and associated Bullen Bay terminal under a long-term lease signed after Shell returned the facility to the local government in 1985.

Following at least two false starts, Curacao is again looking for a new refinery operator. One unnamed potential partner recently conducted a site visit, and a second one is scheduled to arrive in June, RdK says. Non-binding proposals are expected in July. Among the companies that previously eyed the facility is Saudi Aramco´s US refining unit Motiva.

In recent years the refinery has been mostly shut down on a lack of feedstock, maintenance and utility services, threatening 2,000 local jobs, while activity at the Bullen Bay terminal has slowed to a trickle.

In early May Curacao received a US Treasury license that would clear the way to contract a new partner for the refinery without running afoul of US sanctions on PdV.

The oil assets on Curacao are part of PdV´s once-bustling logistical network in the Dutch Caribbean. Activity has dwindled in part because the Dutch legal jurisdiction has facilitated the seizure of Venezuelan assets by a multitude of creditors in recent years.

Isla and PdV officials could not be reached for comment.

Curacao currently hosts an estimated 27,000 Venezuelan migrants, out of a population of 160,000, part of a region-wide refugee wave fueled by Venezuela's political and economic crisis. The Dutch government recently approved 24mn euros to help Curacao and nearby Aruba cope with the migration flow.