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SANTO DOMINGO.-
Industry Commerce minister Francisco Javier
Garcia today accused the Shell oil company of
placing obstacles so that Dominican Republic
cannot comply with the requirement, established
in the Petrocaribe treaty with Venezuela, which
benefits the country in the purchase of 50,000
barrels of oil daily.
Garcia, citing
statistics which reveal that Shell has reduced
its purchases from Venezuela since the start of
the Energy Agreement of Caracas, an initiative
which preceded Petrocaribe, said he does not
know why the multination oil firm tries to keep
the country from buying 50,000 oil barrels from
Venezuela daily.
The official also
revealed that in a meeting with Shell’s top
executives last Saturday, previous to his trip
last Monday to Caracas to formalize the
Petrocaribe accord, they expressed their
intention to adhere to that requirement.
"I met with them
Saturday in the morning and they requested of me
to give them a chance until the afternoon to
formulate a proposal to me. I told them that if
their proposal was to still buy one gallon of
fuel less than the 50,000, to then not even call
me, because it made no sense to travel to
Venezuela," he said.
Garcia made his
statements in the televised program El DIa, with
Huchi Lora and Ramon Núñez Ramirez.
He said that Shell
increased its oil purchases from Mexico, which
he consider senseless because that country, in
the case of the Dominican Republic has refused
to comply with the agreement in the San Jose
Agreement.
"I do not understand
how a preference in the purchase is given to
Mexico, which has not complied the Agreement of
San jOse, in detriment of Venezuela, which is
giving us a treatment that nobody in the world
us will give us," he said.
He added that president
Leonel Fernandez, in the 1996-2000 period, tried
to get Mexico to adhere to the San Jose accord,
and that "president Hipólito Mejía in 2000-2004
period also did the same, and now in the
2004-2008 period, doctor Fernandez insists and
with Mexico nothing has been obtained."
This latest barrage of
charges comes in the aftermath of a heated
debate between Dominican Petroleum Refinery
president Aristides Fernandez Zucco and
Fernandez’s top adviser on the relations with
Hugo Chavez, Miguel Mejia, with Venezuela’s
ambassador Francisco Landis accusing Fernandez
Zucco of “placing obstacles” against Petrocaribe. |
