Shipment of Venezuelan diesel on way to Belize…

It did not take long for Belize to take advantage of Venezuela’s offer to provide petroleum products on concessionary terms. According to Venezuelan press reports, an agreement was signed Friday under which the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, will send us a first shipment of fifteen thousand barrels of diesel. Delivery from a Venezuelan owned refinery on Curacao was supposed to have been initiated Sunday via a Cuban flag tanker. The deal between Belize and Venezuela was signed by C.E.O. in the Ministry of Investment Cresencio Sosa, and Asdrubal Chavez, the Venezuelan President’s brother who runs the oil company’s shipping arm. Terms of the sale are sixty percent in cash, the balance over a long term at a very low interest rate. The diesel now on its way from Curacao will ostensibly be stored at the Esso bulk storage terminal. How G.O.B. and Esso will work out distribution, profit, taxation, and other details has not yet been announced. At his press conference today the Prime Minister noted that while the price at the pump would not necessarily be lower due to the Venezuelan deal, the financing arrangement would help government with its hard currency debt servicing problems.