WILLEMSTAD — Whatever was still up and running at the Isla-refinery fell out September 28th 2009 in the morning as well. Even the offices were without electricity. The generators only supported the most vital units. The fall out occurred at four-thirty September 28th 2009 in the morning when the downpour started.
The cause of the fall out is a black out at the BOO, the independent power station on the Isla-terrain, which has already encountered serious gaps in the electricity and steam supply since the past months.
Due to revision, the Curaçao Utilities Company (CUC) had announced that the power station would supply less capacity in September. This morning’s failure was unexpected and it is therefore unclear when the power station could be started up again. According to the planning, CUC would produce and supply the normal quantity of energy again.
"70 percent was already lacking since September 7th", said spokesperson Kenneth Gijsbertha. "The rest followed this morning." As a large part of the refinery had already fallen out of disuse, there was barely any report on hindrance of torching or residual gasses. Last week, the company expressed the expectation that the cat cracker, which was already out of use since a month, would be started up again mid October.
The entire or partially falling out of the refinery implies a loss of many millions on income.
Gijsbertha could not say how much the damage amounted to since the beginning of September. "One day without the cat cracker amounts to a loss of 500,000 to 750,000 dollars."