Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 01 2020
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This is expected to benefit the environment. EDP intends to launch the new system before the end of 2021.
EDP has already signed various agreements with different contractors. It has arranged to acquire LNG from Royal Dutch Shell (UK/ Netherlands) and has tasked Boskalis (Nether- lands) with engineering and building the subsea link between the FSRU and the TPP.
Meanwhile, SAAM Towage (Chile) will use three tugboats to provide tug support services. BW LNG (Norway) will be operating the FSRU. Wartsila (Finland) will supply gas-fired internal combustion engines and steam turbine genera- tors to fuel the power station. Elecnor has agreed to engineer and build the 44-km link to the Cen- tral American grid, along with all necessary sub- stations..
Klesch Group to take control of Refineria di Korsou, edging out PdVSA
CURAÇAO
REFINERIA di Korsou (RdK), the owner of the Curacao oil-processing plant, has recently agreed to a buy-out deal with the Klesch Group, a privately held international industrial com- modities firm.
In a statement, RdK revealed that the two sides had signed an asset purchase and sale agreement (APSA) that lays the foundation for a takeover by Klesch. It did not report the value of the deal, but it said that the group would be assuming control of the refinery and associated facilities, including the Bullenbay Oil Terminal and a utilities plant known as CRU. “The agree- ment entails sale of the Curacao oil facilities with the land in long lease,” it noted.
The statement went on to say that RdK hoped to complete the transaction soon. “Now [the] parties will continue to work to fulfill conditions precedents agreed, with the aim [of signing] the two remaining agreements for closure in 2020,” it said. “This is planned to take place in the sec- ond quarter of 2020.”
The APSA and subsequent agreements will serve to remove RdK from the control of Ven- ezuela’s national oil company (NOC) PdVSA,
which has been operating the refinery since 1985. PdVSA signed a rental agreement for the plant in 1985 and has renewed the document repeatedly. The latest renewed version of the contract expired on December 31, 2019.
RdK and Klesch have been in negotiations since September, when the former named the latter as the winner of a bidding contest. Klesch submitted the most attractive offer for the refin- ery, which has a design capacity of 335,000 bar- rels per day. The facility typically operates below full capacity, handling about 270,000-290,000 bpd of crude.
In 2019, RdK’s refinery was essentially idle. It could not operate normally, partly because the utilities plant was not supplying steam and partly PdVSA had limited options for the deliv- ery of Venezuelan feedstock. (The US govern- ment has exempted RdK from the sanctions it has imposed on PdVSA, but the exemption applies only to operations and not to Venezuelan crude shipments.)
Klesch has not said when it hopes to restart the refinery in Curacao; nor has it said where it hopes to source feedstock for the plant.
RdK’s refinery has been under the control of PdVSA since 1985 (Photo: ZjeituFilms/YouTube)
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w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 01 09•January•2020
