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local Wednesday 26 OctOber 2022
Aruba successful in bid to purchase Heavy Fuel Oil from Ecuador

During a recent press conference, approval and authorization of the
minister of Labor, Energy and In- Government of Aruba. “We saw
tegration, Mr. Glenbert Croes in- the bills for water and electricity
formed local media about his re- when these came out, and par-
cent travel together with a com- ticularly the one for electricity, we
mission to Ecuador to look for the saw very high bills, and in our opin-
opportunity to purchase heavy fuel ion this is without the approval and
oil – the fuel used by WEB Aruba NV authorization of the government of
to produce water and electricity – Aruba”, the minister insisted.
at a better price. “I can say that we
achieved this goal”, minister Croes Utilities, Elmar and WEB Aruba NV
said. are investigating if anything went
wrong regarding the higher-than-
Croes mentioned that there was usual bills. “And in any case there
criticism that this fuel from Ecua- is no justification for the high bills
dor is of lesser quality, but he said that came out, and because of
the reality is that in the past three this there needs to be a correction
years, about 50 percent of fuel in this before the payment [is due]
that WEB Aruba NV purchases from on the 14th of November, because
abroad was already coming from there needs to be a solution that his delegation, as well as the gen- Flopec (Ecuadorian tanker fleet)
Ecuador, and the other 50 percent the people can carry”, he pointed eral manager of Petroecuador, in the future could use Aruba as a
came from Colombia, Puerto Rico out. Hugo Aguiar Lozano together with logistic base in this region, which
and the United States. his delegation for the support in Ec- means good news for the storage
Before this fuel boards a ship, spe- Regarding a better price, minister uador. Minister Croes received as- tanks that Aruba has in RdA as well
cialist inspectors for HFO imported Croes indicated that they are get- sistance from the general consul of as great news for the maritime ac-
to Aruba from WEB Aruba NV must ting this through the elimination of the Netherlands in Ecuador, Diego tivities in our region, which will also
approve the HFO. WEB purchases a middleman, which is very signifi- Almeida Guzman where he also generate income for logistics com-
this at the Fuels Marketing and cant. There were two middlemen received support from the Dutch panies that provide service to ships
Supply Aruba (FMSA), who are in between FMSA and Petroecuador, embassy and the plenipotentiary that dock and carry out operations
charge of the purchases. and this week they will work on de- minister of Aruba in Washington, in our territorial waters, according
fining the way of connection. Joselyn Croes. to Croes.
Seeing as the opportunity to pur-
chase HFO from Ecuador present- Croes explained that even so, “The trip to Ecuador produced Petroecuador is the national oil
ed itself, a delegation of execu- they are not abandoning their ef- more results in the context of co- company of Ecuador with capac-
tives from the Aruba Refinery (RdA) forts in Washington to purchase operation between governments ity for extraction, production, and
and FMSA in the coming weeks, HFO of Venezuela origin. But in the which we want to achieve be- operation. Croes said in the con-
led by Mr. Edison Briesen as com- meantime, the mission in Ecua- tween Aruba and Ecuador. There text of the reactivation of RdA
missary president of RdA will travel dor produced positive results. He was also the proposition for a tank- based on natural gas, “as long as
to finalize these agreements. thanked minister of Energy of Ec- er fleet in Ecuador Flopec”, he said. there is a possibility for the refinery,
uador, Xavier Vera Grunauer and that we are in energetic transition,
“We are immensely pleased be- refineries around the world will not
cause the fact that we can pur- stay alive a lot longer but in the
chase HFO at a better price than meantime you can make use of it”.
we are currently getting gives us
the opportunity to reduce the Croes announced that Petroec-
price of water and electricity, be- uador has the possibility to make
cause the goal is for the discount crude oil from Ecuador available
to translate in the reduction of the for the plans of reactivation that
price of water and electricity for Aruba has for our refinery. “Our re-
our entire community”, Croes said. finery will have a life for as long as
the world has a possibility for this.
He insisted that this is very impor- But seeing the interest in different
tant because he noted the impact projects, like the establishment of
of the increase in price of water hydrogen facilities on the solar re-
and electricity – and in his opin- finery, this will be our next step”, he
ion, this took place without the emphasized.q