CATEGORY:ECONOMIC NEWS
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By Trevor Thwaites (Inside Grenada correspondent)



ST. GEORGE, Grenada - If all goes to plan, the Petro Caribbe Arrangement between Oil –rich Venezuela and Grenada could begin before the end of the year. The storage tanks for the fuel will be located at the former Gravel Quarry at the Queen’s Park in St George’s. A Venezuela Technical team arrived here last week and has been testing the soil and topography of the area, to ascertain whether the location is best suited to accommodate the storage tanks.

Venezuela’s Ambassador to Grenada, Her Excellency Edna Figueredo, said that the team will be here until Friday August 25 testing the feasibility of the area. “They will be drilling to about 24ft and will be testing the soil after every 9ft. The tests will be sent back to the lab in Venezuela, so that they can know what type of structure will be needed for the fuel tanks”, Ambassador Figueredo told the local press at the drilling site last week Friday at the Queen’s Park.

The plan, according to officials of Petro Caribbe Grenada Limited, is to construct three huge storage tanks that would each accommodate 20,000 barrels of fuel. “As such, you need the right foundation”, Ambassador Figueredo said. It was indeed a happy moment for President of Petro Caribbe Grenada Limited Frederick Antoine. “Everything is going well. It has been a long way to travel; but progress is being made. It is an encouraging start. Once the soil test is acceptable, the next step is to build the structure”, he said.

Antoine said that work would now be at a pace to have the storage facilities in place. He is hopeful that the operations could start within the next four months. He said the Sol Gas is willing to be of the arrangement and that efforts are also being made to have Texaco on board. Under the Petro Caribbe Arrangement, Grenada will be able to purchase gasoline and other energy products at 60% of the world market price and pay the other 40% over a 25-year period at an interest rate of 1%.

Local officials have welcomed the arrangement. “The Financial Arrangement with PDVSA is a big plus. The first two years of the 25 years is a grace period after which you pay 23 equal installments”, Antoine pointed out. Under the deal the government hopes to save about EC$30 million a year, which it says will be spent of social programmes including, health, housing, education and infrastructure development.