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RdK appears pessimistic about

refinery negotiations with CORC

REFINERIA di Korsou (RdK), the govern- further steps toward reorganisation and inven-
ment-run operator of Curaçao’s only oil-pro- tory sale. It did tell Argus Media that it would
cessing plant, appears to be pessimistic about its retain ownership of its reorganised portfolio and
chances of striking a deal with the Curaçao Oil seek another strategic partner if it did not come
Refinery Complex (CORC) consortium on the to terms with CORC by September 30.
sale of its refinery and associated assets. CORC is the fourth organisation that has
RdK began talks earlier this year with CORC, sought to acquire the oil-processing plant,
which has described itself as a “100% Curaçao- which has a design capacity of 335,000 barrels
based entity with shareholdings of Dick and per day (bpd). RdK has also held negotiations
Doof [of the Netherlands], together with the with China’s Guangdong Zhenrong Energy
combined trade unions PWFC and APRI.” (GZE), Saudi Arabia’s Motiva and the Klesch
Despite questions about the expiration of a Group, a privately held international industrial
memorandum of understanding (MoU) that commodities firm.
gave the consortium the exclusive right to nego- The Isla refinery has been idle since 2019.
tiate a deal, the parties did succeed in signing a This is partly because CRU was not supplying
preliminary contract in May. steam to its processing units and partly because
The signing paved the way for Curacao’s gov- US sanctions prevented its then-operator,
ernment to step in and complete the transaction. the Venezuelan national oil company (NOC)
Thus far, though, the two sides have not been PdVSA, from delivering feedstock.
able to hammer out a final agreement, as CORC PdVSA began operating the Isla refinery and
has not been able to prove its ability to meet the associated facilities under a rental agreement
conditions of the sale. first signed in 1985 and later renewed multiple
In the meantime, RdK has begun consolidat- times. RdK allowed the latest version of that
ing its assets, according to a report from Argus contract to expire at the end of 2019. ™
Media. It has arranged to shut down its associ-
ated utilities division, known as Curaçao Refin-
ery Utilities (CRU), by the end of September.
The company is also working to unload
inventory – namely, about 865,000 barrels of
Venezuelan crude oil, blendstocks and petro-
leum products acquired from CRU at an auction
held in June. It informed Argus Media last week
that it intended to sell these liquids in multiple
batches, some of which have already been put up
for sale. Buyers are already negotiating for some
of these batches, it added, without providing any
further details.
RdK did not say whether it would take any The plant’s utility division will close next month (Photo: Curaçao Chronicle)

COLOMBIA
Ecopetrol aims to launch pilot project

for green hydrogen production next year

COLOMBIA’S national oil company (NOC) investment in blue hydrogen.
Ecopetrol has announced plans to launch a According to Felipe Bayon, the CEO of the
pilot project for the purpose of green hydrogen state-owned company, Ecopetrol aims to launch
production and will also explore options for green hydrogen production next year.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 31 05•August•2021