WILLEMSTAD - According to the website marinetraffic.com, the vessel Ridgebury Astari its on its way to deliver two million barrels of crude oil to Bullen Bay. Curaçao Refinery (RdK) mentioned in its recent press release that thanks to the agreement with Caribbean Petroleum Refinery (CPR), they can expect activities at Bullen Bay shortly. RdK did not mention that a vessel was already on its way to Curaçao.
Currently the vessel is located near West Africa and will take about thirteen days to reach Curaçao. The vessel departed from Chennai, India on May 30.
RdK recently announced that while it is working diligently to conclude the negotiations for a long-term lease agreement with CPR, Curacao Refinery Utilities (CRU), a subsidiary of RdK, has reached an agreement with CPR that allows the company to store products at the terminal at Bullen Bay.
The storage agreement is independent of the long-term agreement that regards management and operation of the refinery and Bullen Bay terminal, which RdK and CPR are currently negotiating. The agreement entails that CPR can store up to 7-million-barrels of products at the terminal.
RdK indicated at the beginning of the negotiations with CPR that both the refinery at Schottegat and Bullen Bay will be negotiated as one. But now it seems that CPR is ready to start doing business using the facilities and Bullen Bay with oil from India, while no agreement has been reached yet for the takeover of the oil refinery. Even the current government parties stressed, before the elections, that no company will get the ‘gold mine’ Bullen Bay without the refinery.
A source close to the refinery indicate that this could be risky. “What if you don’t reach an agreement for the takeover of the refinery? What will you do then with Bullen Bay?” The source says he understands the rush to make money and to put people to work, but the two should not have been separated. “You get Bullen Bay, if you take the refinery!”