The government of Curaçao, the Dutch Caribbean island, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chinese company Guangdong Zhenrong Energy for the company to invest US$10bn in the modernisation of the refinery.
The 335,000 bbl/d Emmastad (Isla) refinery was operated under a lease agreement by the Venezuelan company PdVSA but the company was unwilling to invest US$1.5bn to modernise the facility commissioned in 1918. Under the terms of the MoU, the Chinese company, a subsidiary of the China state petroleum trader Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, would finance, modernize and operate the refinery, the storage terminal and dock. The current lease agreement with PdVSA will end on 31 December 2019.
Located about 50 km northwest of Venezuela, the Emmastad refinery is a strategic facility for PdVSA to store and ship Venezuelan oil destined for the Asian market. China in the last decade has become one of the top buyers of Venezuelan crude and fuel through an oil-for-loans financing agreement.
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