Venezuela’s PDVSA Oil Terminal in Caribbean Seized Over Payment Dispute

In 2019, a Curacao oil firm wrapped up a contract with the PDVSA on operating the Venezuelan company’s refinery on the Dutch island, which had a capacity for 335,000 barrels per day.

An oil storage terminal on the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire has been seized by Curacao’s state-run oil firm Refineria di Korsou (RdK) following a payment dispute with the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA, according to Managing Director of RdK  Marcelino de Lannoy.

Curacao is a Dutch island region in the southern Caribbean Sea located about 65 kilometres north of the Venezuelan coast.

The managing director also pledged that RdK will take BOPEC workers’ interests into account “as long as this is possible”, expressing hope that “with this PDVSA will comply with its duties”.

The developments come after the end of a contract between RdK and the PDVSA last year to operate the Isla refinery on Curacao.

This was preceded by Washington freezing the US-based assets of the PDVSA worth $7 billion in 2018 as part of the White House’s efforts to sanction Venezuela and its officials in recent years in hitherto fruitless attempts to force its duly elected President Nicolas Maduro to resign. Caracas slammed the move as unlawful and accused Washington of seeking to get its hands on Venezuela’s oil reserves.

Sourse: sputniknews.com