The spokesperson for PDV Caribe Antigua & Barbuda Ltd. is Antigua & Barbuda’s Non-resident Ambassador to Venezuela Joan Underwood. She confirmed yesterday that the local group is working steadily towards placing an order for the first shipment of fuel from Venezuela.

hat shipment is expected to arrive in September.

There are still a number of details to be worked out before that takes place. High on the list of arrangements which are still pending is a plan for storage of the fuel once it gets to Antigua. A number of meetings have been held between PDV (Antigua & Barbuda) and the West Indies Oil Company (WIOC), with the view to arranging for the fuel from Venezuela to be stored in WIOC facilities.

These discussions are ongoing and an agreement between PDV and WIOC has not yet been signed. Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer has, nevertheless, gone on record expressing his optimism that an agreement would be reached shortly. The prime minister pointed out that the government holds 25 per cent interest in WIOC, and expects that interest to play well in the negotiations, paving the way for such an agreement.

Another issue that must be addressed with WIOC is the proposed arrangement for Antigua to provide storage for other OECS islands which plan to take advantage of the PetroCaribe offer but do not possess adequate storage facilities.

One concern raised by the Venezuelan fuel company is that it would not be financially feasible to dispense small shipments of fuel to individual OECS islands, most of which do not possess the sort of bulk storage facilities which would be required to make such shipments practical.

The plan currently being worked on with some of these islands is for Antigua to act as a transhipment and storage point for the fuel, so that large bulk orders can be made.

The fuel would be stored in Antigua, making use of WIOC facilities, and dispensed in smaller shipments as needed to the relevant islands.

Under the PetroCaribe agreement, fuel will be sold at international market prices, but the OECS governments will only be required to pay 60 per cent of the cost of the fuel up front.

According to the agreement signed by Antigua in July, the remaining 40 per cent can be repaid over 23 years at the nominal interest rate of one per cent, with a two year moratorium before the payments must begin.

The agreement will allow Antigua and Barbuda to purchase up to a million barrels of fuel from Venezuela per year.