 |
| St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Denzil L. Douglas (r) and President of Venezuela, His EXcellency Hugo Chavey signing the Petro Caribe Agreement in Montego Bay, Jamaica early September 2005. |
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, OCTOBER 12TH 2005 (CUOPM) St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Denzil L. Douglas said Tuesday that a local company has been formed to pursue the Petro Caribe Initiative with the Government of Venezuela.
St. Kitts-Nevis Energy Company will be responsible for purchasing the fuel and other petroleum products from Venezuela under the Petro Caribe Agreement with the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, Prime Minister Douglas told reporters.
He said the Agreement calls for the purchasing of the oil products by a State Company from a State Company in Venezuela.
Dr. Douglas said that under the agreement, St Kitts and Nevis has become a beneficiary country and would be assisted with its energy import bill and its social development programme.
We will continue to purchase petroleum products at the same market price. Venezuela is one of 11 oil producing nations of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and therefore cannot undersell the other oil producing countries, the Prime Minister pointed out.
What the Venezuelan Government has done which has been embraced by most the Caribbean Governments is to provide a facility that allows us to pay only 60 percent of the cost for the fuel products upfront. Forty percent will go into a particular fund as a loan that will be repaid over a period of 25 years at one percent interest rate. Therefore the savings, which is the forty percent deferred payment will go into the Fund and that can be used to assist in the financing of a number of social development programmes that we want to pursue in our various countries but which we have difficulty in pursuing because of the ongoing escalation in energy costs, said Dr. Douglas.
He disclosed that Shell and SOL, two existing distributors of petroleum products in the Federation are partnering with Government by providing storage facilities during the initial stage.
This will allow us to begin purchasing directly from Venezuela the petroleum products, especially diesel and we are presently negotiating Jet A1 fuel as well, but specifically the diesel which we are using for our purposes at the Electricity Generating Plant at Needsmust, said Prime Minister Douglas.
Shell and Sol will store the products and we would be able to manage the continuing escalating high cost for our fuel, he told reporters.
Prime Minister Douglas and the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, His Excellency Hugo Chavez signed the bilateral agreement in Jamaica early last month.
The Agreement was also signed by Heads of Government or Heads of Delegation from Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Belize, Guyana and the Dominican Republic.
