<p><strong style="font-size:13px;"><a rel="nofollow" class="highslide" target="_blank" href="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PDVSA0001.jpg"><imgclass="alignleft size-medium wp-image-107144" title="PDVSA0001" src="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PDVSA0001-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225"/></a>The Petrocaribe program was started in 2005 under President Hugo Chavez, and since then has provided countries in the region with invaluable social assistance. But that donor nation is now owed twenty billion through Petrocaribe, and with the country now cash strapped, there is talk of selling some of that debt to private entities to boost liquidity. So far there’s no talk of Belize, but it seems inevitable that there will be some effect on the hundreds of millions pumped into G.O.B.’s coffers through the Petrocaribe pipeline. One ripple which has touched our small nation already is an announcement by PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil and natural gas exporter. With immediate effect, Belize will no longer receive Premium fuel from Venezuela. Prime Minister Dean Barrow made the announcement today about PDVSA and about reports of securitization of the debt.</strong></p>
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<p><strong>Prime Minister Dean Barrow</strong></p>
<div id="attachment_107146" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width:160px;"><a rel="nofollow" class="highslide" target="_blank" href="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PDVSA.jpg"><imgclass="size-thumbnail wp-image-107146" title="Dean Barrow" src="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PDVSA-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Dean Barrow</p></div>
<p><em>“PDVSA has indicated that they will no longer be able to supply us with Premium…I think starting either now but certainly by the end of the year. So in effect that is a cutback of the program. I believe that the amount of premium is only about fifteen percent of the total volumes that we get, but it clearly represents a rollback and as I’ve indicated on the last occasion I utterly and completely understand. What we will do to try and make up some of that thirteen or fifteen percent loss, whatever it is, is to have certainly government vehicles only use Regular. People who know say to me that that’s marketing – Premium being better than Regular.”</em></p>
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<p><strong>Reporter</strong></p>
<p>“If they were to securitize it, I can’t see that the new owner of the debt would be agreeable to a one percent interest rate, which is where it currently is at.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong><a rel="nofollow" class="highslide" target="_blank" href="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PDVSA0002.jpg"><imgclass="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-107145" title="PDVSA0002" src="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PDVSA0002-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150"/></a>Dean Barrow</strong></p>
<p><em>“Well…we’d have to see what the deal is with that sort of thing. Clearly there are changes and I’m saying that we are prepared to deal with the changes. It’s been a lovely run. If it comes to an end certainly in its current form, we’ll roll with the punches.”</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>There are reports that the amount of fuel sold to some Caribbean countries in October fell by twenty percent compared to last year.</strong></p>
View the full article
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Prime Minister Dean Barrow</strong></p>
<div id="attachment_107146" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width:160px;"><a rel="nofollow" class="highslide" target="_blank" href="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PDVSA.jpg"><imgclass="size-thumbnail wp-image-107146" title="Dean Barrow" src="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PDVSA-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Dean Barrow</p></div>
<p><em>“PDVSA has indicated that they will no longer be able to supply us with Premium…I think starting either now but certainly by the end of the year. So in effect that is a cutback of the program. I believe that the amount of premium is only about fifteen percent of the total volumes that we get, but it clearly represents a rollback and as I’ve indicated on the last occasion I utterly and completely understand. What we will do to try and make up some of that thirteen or fifteen percent loss, whatever it is, is to have certainly government vehicles only use Regular. People who know say to me that that’s marketing – Premium being better than Regular.”</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Reporter</strong></p>
<p>“If they were to securitize it, I can’t see that the new owner of the debt would be agreeable to a one percent interest rate, which is where it currently is at.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong><a rel="nofollow" class="highslide" target="_blank" href="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PDVSA0002.jpg"><imgclass="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-107145" title="PDVSA0002" src="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PDVSA0002-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150"/></a>Dean Barrow</strong></p>
<p><em>“Well…we’d have to see what the deal is with that sort of thing. Clearly there are changes and I’m saying that we are prepared to deal with the changes. It’s been a lovely run. If it comes to an end certainly in its current form, we’ll roll with the punches.”</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>There are reports that the amount of fuel sold to some Caribbean countries in October fell by twenty percent compared to last year.</strong></p>
View the full article