By Trevor Thwaites (St. George's correspondent)


ST.GEORGE’S, Grenada: If all goes according to plan, the first batch of supplies to the country under the Petro Caribe Arrangement with Oil-rich Venezuela, should be here within three months. The follows the officials signing of the Supply Contract last Monday in St George’s between Petro Caribe Grenada Limited and PDVSA Oil Company of Venezuela. Chairman of the local company Frederick Antoine and President of PDVSA Venezuela Alejandro Granados singed the contract at the Prime Minister’s office in the presence of Energy Minister the Hon Gregory Bowen.

Under the arrangement, Grenada will purchase gas, diesel, fuel and other supplies from Venezuela at 60% of the cost. The other 40% will be paid over a period of 25years at an interest rate of 1%. The deal has been struck with oil prizes currently at US$70 a barrel and continuing to rise on the international market. LPG and other products will also be sourced from the world’s fifth largest oil producer under the new arrangement. In the supply contract, Venezuela has consented to supply Grenada with 55,000 barrels of diesel, 85,000 barrels of gasoline and 200,000 barrels of fuel annually.

Energy Minister the Hon Gregory Bowen has praised the government of Venezuela for the assistance, which he says will go a long way in helping with the reconstruction and recovery of the country following the recent devastating hurricanes. Grenada became the 10th country to sign onto the Petro Caribe Deal which also encompasses 20 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America. Some 11 regional countries have signed the deal – Jamaica, Antigua, the Dominican Republic, Dominica, Cuba, Suriname, Haiti, Belize, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts/Nevis and Grenada.

Under the new arrangement only the state will benefit from the agreement signed with Venezuela. As such Grenada and all of the participating countries are required to set up government-owned companies. Grenada has done this and so Petro Caribe Grenada Limited is the company that will be purchasing the products from Venezuela. Sol and Texaco by nature of their operations are unable to participate. However the Energy Minister says that all of the Gas Stations in the country have given their commitment to work along with the government.
“I want to really show my appreciation to the government of Venezuela. We are on the threshold of being able to benefit significantly from the 60/40 arrangement that Venezuela has afforded Grenada and the entire region,” the Energy Minister said. President of PDVSA Alejandro Granados indicated that the deal was part of his country’s efforts to unite Latin America and the Caribbean. Speaking through an interpreter, he said that they were not only signing a commercial agreement, but was also moving to strengthen the management of energy between the two countries. “The main idea is the integration and complementation in the use of energy,” Granados said.



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