this thread was started for those that think they know something about the BOPEC history...

Vince, do you know the background of BOPEC?

When did they allow the facility to be built & how much money per year comes form BOPEC into the island economy.

BOPEC opened in 1975, I believe.

Freddie.

I don't understand how one can separate the events at BOPEC from it's owners. I am not making this political, it wouldn't matter whether it was Venezuela or the UK. There have been so many conflicting reports coming from their spokespeople. First it was an electrical fire that spread, then it was an electrical fire & a separate lightning strike, then we discover that it has been spewing oil into the ocean as a result of another separate event a few days earlier.

Whether they like it or not, the Venezuelan Government are wholly responsible for the site, its safety, its future & the clean-up operation.

Sending out party political spin about airborne fire-fighting heroics rather than concentrating on the problem at hand as well as the possible environmental consequences is disgraceful.

The people (& flora & fauna) of Bonaire deserve better.

Now admit it. You've missed me!

Antony, you and Harrie have both been missed.

Back to the policy in place, as I said in my post, hijacking (and you are not the only person) is no longer tolerated - period.

It looks as though it is catching!

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCAQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fuk.reuters.com%2Farticle%2FidUKN1112223020100911&ei=wK-LTM7-Boqo4AbThtGBCg&usg=AFQjCNHjJIL8d-onvJ9XuXCu1tsweD8axg

Apparently we have all been moaning about nothing. Thanks to the 'several planes' sent by Venezuela, the fire has been out since Thursday,

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CCsQqQIwAw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fenglish.eluniversal.com%2F2010%2F09%2F10%2Fen_eco_art_fire-extinguished-at_10A4451331.shtml&ei=RbCLTJn_McKI4QbJjICQCg&usg=AFQjCNGxDbr81-JXUuQbjkC4g6kdL65QGg

God bless Hugo.

Dear BT-readers,

First, I have been off BT for several years, because I got struck in a discussion with the moderators, where they didn't give me the respect I deserved.
Now there was a topic where a lot of nonsense was told about the fire on Bopec what makes me and other Bonaire-fans worried a lot. Because, where I live I have a clear view on the Bopec premises, I could tell some true things, I came back to BT, to inform the readers. As I tried to do.
Of course the fire on Bopec cannot be seen separate from the behaviour of Bopec and Venezuela. People that think they can keep this separated don't have an open/wide view on human life.
Again the moderators are trying to influence their viewpoints to the readers of BT. I don't want to get involved again in that. I have all the years tried to give neutral information about what is going on on the island. Sometimes it is not possible to document it with papers. But when you are on the island, and have relations, you always know more then some moderator, far, far away.
So this is for the future my last post. This board is over-moderated.

Just once again some facts:

I have been looking very, very often to the Bopec-site, even from our sleeping-room, several times in the night. We have been on a boat between KleinBonaire and Bopec whole friday. I haven't been diving, swimming, or snorkeling at all, just was looking with tears in my eyes what was happening to our pearl in the Caribbean.
There were no fire-extinguishing planes at all. Their was just one fire-extinguishing boat, the promised boats from Venezuela didn't arrive at all.
The whole night from thursday to friday the fire was going on, and nearly as high as on thursday, the wideness was even bigger. On fridaymorning it stopped, but reignited around 2pm friday. The flames again were high (see the picture I posted friday, sept. 10, 2010 at 5:11 pm. in the "Bopec on fire" thread.) The fire was burning like hell, the whole night, morning and first part of the afternoon on friday the 10th. Everybody who claims it was off, is lying.
At this moment (Saturday, 1pm) the fire is out, sometimes there is a small curl of smoke going into the sky.

Something needs to be done to get this plant uplevelled to international standards, I think it is impossible to get the plant off the island, because of long-term contracts.
No, the financial proceeds of Bopec for the island are very, very low. We think there is work for 50 Bonairians, not true, most of them have been exchanged for imported Venezuelans.
For now the government is taking action to get a good investigation about what has happened, and I hope they will take a close look too at the safety-procedures. I know there are Dutch specialists involved.

So far some facts.

Good luck with BT

Harrie

Thank you for the info Harrie. And it's good to see you again.

Antony..I believe it was opened on the island in 1975. As to how much the Bonaire government receives from the Venezuelan government, frankly I haven't a clue. Having said that, I do think that Bonaire would be much better off without it.
I'd rather see them get their revenue from other means.

Harrie your post is exactly what we wanted to hear about in the Bopec Fire thread, first hand accounts from the locals!!!........ the political stuff can go here.....that was just clutter in that thread..... People you can start another thread anytime to add to the topic that you want to go off topic with....just sayin.....

talking about lightening machines, earthquake machines that loco Chavez says we {USA} have is ludicrist.. just like him......it is nothing about the fire at hand....... just trying to stick by the rules IS hard sometimes, but there are a few of us that DO go off Topic. let's all try to be more cognizant about that....

and Yes Antony{with no H} I have missed you.......

Harry, thanks for your post, appreciate your input. Just left the island not too long before all this occurred and it really makes me saddened to read about it. Wishing it all was a bad dream....

The plant was founded in 1974 by the dutch company Paktank and an American company.
In February, 1974, Paktank began negotiations with Harold Bernstein, head of Northville Industries of Long Island, N.Y., a large, privately-held fuel distributor, to build an 8.3-million barrel transshipment terminal at Bonaire in the Netherland Antilles. The concept was simple: supertankers carrying oil from North Africa and the Middle East would deposit their cargos at Bonaire for transfer to smaller ships to carry the oil to the U.S. mainland. There are no docking facilities large enough to handle supertankers on the American East Coast. The Bonaire complex went into operation this past January when the Tanker Al Bilad discharged a cargo of Nigerian crude oil into the new plant's storage tanks. ( http://aliciapatterson.org/APF001975/Crowe/Crowe12/Crowe12.html )
The plant was founded to fulfill the oil needs in the USA. The same was happening on the other dutch islands. After the tax holiday was over the plant was sold to the PDVSA.

I attended a program a few years back at Harbour Village and it was a discussion on the upcoming ISO certification that was pending at BOPEC. I was impressed by the program. Later when Maggie was being homeschooled after attending Papa Cornes (BON public school) she did an independent study on BOPEC. We had a tour and learned much about the facility. Again, I was very impressed.

I cannot provide any objective commentary on this accident but hope our fragile eco system is not compromised.

Our dear friend, Sean Paton, has put together this very short but revealing film about the BOPEC fire and the consequences and damages sustained and issues and concerns about future problems to face Bonaire, her waters, day to day living, and more. Please take a minute to watch the film clip. Someone needs to start a...nswering some questions and addressing the "safety" issue and lack of preparedness. Click on the Naptha Fire on the right side column of the page.Thanks.


http://www.youtube.com/user/forumantilles#p/u/0/JeCXYYDoGM4

Very curious where these film shots were taken.

Good to hear you again Harry.

Han, thanks for the background into BOPEC. As far as the location of the film by Sean, I believe that it was a salt water lagoon close to BOPEC. Someone might know different.

For similar reasons to Harry, that's me done on BT. I had not posted for some months but I figured that the events over the last few days were exceptional. I certainly hope that they are exceptional and Bonaire doesn't have to go through anymore abuse.

My hopes for the future are that the damage is not long lasting & that a full & open independent enquiry is launched immediately & that the owners are forced to pay reparation for the damage.

I would urge you all to listen to Sean Paton on Megahitfm at 12.00pm local time today (Sunday) I am sure that he will have further news. Follow this link to downstream. http://www.megahitfm.com/default.asp?ZNT=S0T2O693

(Freddie, don't worry, you are still my friend on FB).

PDVSA is more and more in trouble. Money is used for political goals of Chavez. About 20.000 employees had to go after the general strike against Chavez in 2003. Before the strike there were about 35.000 employees and now there are about 90.000 employees from so many different countries (lots of Iran, Syria, Libia etc) they can not even well communicate. The support companies were not paid and when they demanded money Chavey just nationalized them. The envirement is of no concern.
The Lago Maracaibo was always a Lake also for the fisherman and for recration . See the videos how the Lake looks now !

http://lasarmasdecoronel.blogspot.com/2010/07/oil-spills-in-lake-maracaibo-and-our.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKvDTNa2vBI&feature=related

Accidents and fires are becoming normal events.
At the refinery at Punto Fijo there have been fires in March, April and August ..... and the same applies to lots of other PDVSA places all over the country. A gas platform had a big accident somewhere in June I think, there were big problems in the Orinoco Delta and in the Llanos at oil wells.

I just dont believe that the "normal" security standards and maintenance have been applied at Bopec.

I know it may be hear-say but I have heard a MP ranger has stated that there was an oil-spil at BOPEC last Sunday already.... If true, last sunday there was no lightning to blame......

Anyway, I sincerely hope things will be solved and cleaned soon and properly.
Completely closing the facility I wouldn't mind either..... I am kind of done with the sight of at least 2 oil-tankers drifting around on the horizon every single day. Taking a picture of the sunset is very hard to do lately without a tanker in sight as well..... YEK!

http://aliciapatterson.org/APF001975/Crowe/Crowe12/Crowe12.html

Hope this opens...

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quote:

Very curious where these film shots were taken

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The photo eddie is talking about is taken from up the hill in sabadeco. Eddie does not know the lay out of the island and is insinuating it was altered.

Yes I've been to Bonaire more than once. The photographer who shot this was on a boat.

Follow the link and scale back one click to see the obvious. Satellite view of BOPEC terminal

PDVSA has so many accidents .....
http://english.eluniversal.com/2010/09/13/en_eco_art_in-less-than-a-week,_13A4462091.shtml

The venezualean news paper El Universal informes that BOPEC will stay closed
http://english.eluniversal.com/2010/09/14/en_eco_esp_pdvsas-oil-terminal_14A4467571.shtml

And another comment in El Universal about the 3 fires in 1 week at PDVSA facilities
http://english.eluniversal.com/2010/09/15/en_eco_esp_lack-of-investment-i_15A4471773.shtml

Interesting, Brigitte.

Unpleasant longer term implications for customers such as the Antilles, the US and China if the plants continue to deteriorate as implied.

And for Venezuelans as supply and income go down.