The Trinidad Express
Port
Spain
Petroleumworld.com
02 26 06
While the Government of Trinidad and Tobago initially put in
place a $375 million Petroleum Stabilisation Fund to help cushion
the impact of higher oil prices on the economies of its non-oil
producing neighbours in Caricom, the Venezuelan proposal known
as PetroCaribe is widely considered far more generous.
Trinidad's
oil exports to the region average between 50,000 and 60,000
barrels a day.
Based
on initial estimates, Venezuela expects to provide approximately
200,000 b-d of crude oil and products to Caribbean nations--including
Cuba and the Dominican Republic--under the PetroCaribe oil facility
initiative.
Under
the programme, beneficiary countries can pay Venezuela in goods
and services for oil supplies as well as through a financial
mechanism under which 40 per cent of the oil bill will be financed
by Venezuela, repayable over 25 years at one per cent interest
a year. That mechanism is a type of buy now, pay later plan.
Venezuelan
oil supplies to the Caribbean based on an oil price of approximately
US$60 a barrel over a period of 10 years would mean some US$17
billion in financing, the Venezuelan Government has estimated.
