Patrick Newton, director of Curaçao Refinery (RdK), and also responsible for the Curaçao Refinery Utilities (CRU), did not provide all the information to Parliament, which is currently being discussed in court.
WILLEMSTAD - The value of 40 million florins worth of fuel oil in the tanks at Bullenbaai raises the question of who is the owner of the cargo. A verdict in court on Monday also failed to determine who was responsible for bringing the Curaçao fuel oil into the Bullenbaai terminal.
Judge Mr. van Leeuwen, in his verdict, raised the same questions regarding the formation of the CPR (Caribbean Petroleum Refinery) company and its partners. He explained that there is currently a battle between the groups and individuals associated with CPR, but the parties did not specify the reasons for their conflict. What the judge wanted to explain is that if no reason is mentioned for the dispute in court, it becomes unclear why they are fighting and what it is about. CPR BV is the company that was in negotiations with RdK to manage the Isla Refinery. Furthermore, according to the parties involved (Doran/Giusti group vs Socorro group), no clear history was provided regarding their goals with CPR. This means that at no time during the summary proceedings did the involved parties mention the Isla Refinery as their main objective for resolving the conflict. This is a sufficient argument to conclude that the establishment of CPR BV and Holding is not considered primarily for the Isla Refinery because it was not elaborated on in court. The court also questioned why the parties did not mention their cooperation objective, which in this case should have been the fight to obtain the Isla Refinery project. Additionally, the judge drew attention to the absence of financial figures that the parties should have presented. Logically, if they are not fighting for a purpose and not fighting for finance, the court allows the conclusion that there are other interests at play.
The judge continued to search for arguments to reach a solution. The only thing mentioned was Bullenbaai, where there is a debt of 6 million US dollars pending. According to court proceedings, CPR left fuel oil in tanks at Bullenbaai for Knob Trading. Knob Trading is a commercial partner of Socap, a company owned by Raul Socorro. Knob Trading, in this case, owes money to CPR, who in turn must pay CRU according to a contract between CPR and CRU. However, on February 28, 2023, MCB Bank closed the accounts of CPR, and Knob started paying Socap, who would then pay CRU.
According to the Echerel Doran group, Socap did not pay CRU. The group of Venezuelans, fighting against Doran, including Raul Socorro, denies Doran's version. They claim that they were paying CRU nearly 2.7 million US dollars monthly (according to a lawyer's letter, the amount mentioned during the parliamentary meeting was 1.2 million dollars). According to the judge, there is complete confusion at Bullenbaai, regarding the rental relationships between CPR, CRU, and Knob Trading. In the end, the owner of the fuel oil itself has not appeared yet, confirming that neither RdK nor CRU properly informed Parliament about the truth of the structure between the companies involved at Bullenbaai.