The Petro-Caribe fuel initiative, it was hailed as a boon for Belize's energy security, translating into, if not cheaper gas, then at least, gas on easy credit terms. But it's gone from a boon to a burden, and one that's becoming increasingly costly.
As they say, the devil is in the details and it seems government's lead negotiator on this one, Home Affairs Minister Ralph Fonseca, left one major detail unsettled: he didn't fix a place to store the gas. 7NEWS has confirmed that all of the fuel, 15,000 barrels of Venezuelan diesel is still being stored at the Esso depot. Government has not found any commercial user to buy it, and every day that it is stored, the costs continue to mount. Those costs are affixed by Esso which is charging government a storage fee. And that's not all, 7NEWS has confirmed that the fuel has cost government in other ways.
As we've reported, when the fuel arrived, there was no place to store it because Esso which owns the country's only depot wasn't willing to store fuel for a competing supplier. Government then had to enter into tough-talk negotiations with Esso which very reluctantly agreed to store the gas, but not for free. But for the 6 days that the ship was anchored off the Belize City coast with nowhere to put the fuel, there was a daily charge. How much? 7NEWS has learnt that it cost the government close to $15,000 a day just to keep the ship anchored off the coast. That's about $75,000, add that to Esso's storage and thru-put costs, and the Petro-Caribe plan becomes increasingly expensive.
And still, that's not the end of it. The question now is: will the gas ever be sold? Well, a BEL spokesperson today told us that government continues to offer it to BEL, and that company is looking at it very seriously, but nothing has been settled and no price has been determined. But, we'll add, that if and when BEL does take the fuel, that company has no mass storage for it, so it would again have to continue to be stored at Esso and slowly released to BEL, meaning that storage costs would continue to accrue.
