Petrocaribe is Back – in October

“Petrocaribe will roll it once more,” Prime Minister Dean Barrow confirmed Thursday morning during his Independence Day address. This follows a meeting with a delegation of Venezuelan officials who arrived in country Monday morning and left by Tuesday afternoon. On September fourteenth, the Government had announced an immediate suspension of fuel importation under the Petrocaribe program. According to the Prime Minister, Venezuela offered new arrangements that will, starting in October, re-start the program.

Dean Barrow

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“At the end of last week, however, we announced the suspension of the PetroCaribe fuel and financing arrangement. This had to do with a number of issues which had led to unreliability of supply and forced us to engage in last minute, higher cost, alternative fuel purchases on the spot market. The resulting increases in prices to the consumer at the pump, was what obliged us to move – had nothing to do with taxes, sir. As soon as we did this, though, Venezuela informed that it was sending a high level delegation to Belize, with a direct mandate from President [Nicolas] Maduro to fix the problem. That mission came, met with me on Tuesday, and agreed to new arrangements that guarantee reliability of supply and the filling by Venezuela of all our fuel orders. Shipments will thus restart next month, PetroCaribe will “roll it” once more… (Applause) And we thank the Bolivarian Republic for their fidelity to this enterprise.”