Petrocaribe is a revitalizing energy integration initiative promoted by the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, under the leadership of Comandante Hugo Chávez Frías, which was created in the framework of the First Energy Meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean held June 29, 2005, in the city of Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, with the aim of guaranteeing energy sovereignty, integral development and the political unity of Caribbean and Central American peoples.
Petrocaribe is a multilateral organization initially signed up to by 14 Caribbean nations; Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Granada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Suriname and Venezuela. Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua joined in 2007, Guatemala in 2008 and its most recent signatory was El Salvador in 2014.
Petrocaribe is a comprehensive proposal designed under the principles of cooperation, mutual respect, solidarity and complementarity, which promotes direct energy supply, offering payment facilities and avoiding the speculation of transnational intermediaries.
This energy scheme also contributes to the expansion of the processing, storage and distribution capacity of hydrocarbons, as well as equitable and fair trade among its member countries, to promote social productive participation and raise the quality of life of the people.
One of the main challenges for Petrocaribe is to support, with the redesign of energy policy, social development to address problems caused by the capitalist system such as poverty, social inequality, technological dependence and energetic asymmetries, among other situations affecting the Caribbean and Central America, whose population exceeds 83 million people.
Thus Petrocaribe is developing several social projects directly related to agriculture, education and the health sector of Caribbean member countries through the ALBA-Caribe Fund, to reduce energy imports and dependence on the centers of capitalist power.
Oil and gas, the main resources of the global energy model, are natural resources that provide opportunities for the energy integration of the Caribbean-Central American peoples, and feature as a priority issue on the Venezuelan diplomatic and foreign policy agenda, as reflected in the Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Nation 2001-2007, the Socialist Plan of the Nation 2007-2013 and the Homeland Plan 2013-2019.
Within this framework of ideas, over the past 10 years, Petrocaribe has played a key role in providing “energy for life,” developing into a revolutionary mechanism to unite its signatory countries, in which energy supply is used for sustainability and the well-being of the region.
According to data provided by the Petrocaribe management report (2015), some of the achievements since its creation include the offsetting of 3.471 billion dollars worth of oil with 3,018,829 metric tons of food and 10,621,035 units of other products; the development of socio productive projects; energy supply to the population of the member countries; the formation and operation of 15 joint ventures in 12 countries; increased hydrocarbons storage and distribution capacity; and a refining capacity of 135 thousand barrels per day in benefit of the region.
Petrocaribe ensures sufficient supply to cover 35% of the energy resources required by the region. It currently provides hydrocarbons to 13 signatory countries, contributing an average of 88 thousand barrels per day by 2014 and an accumulative total of 313 million barrels between 2005 and 2014.
Another of the benefits of Petrocaribe, according to the Energy Cooperation Agreement (2005), consists of a scaled financing mechanism which can offset up to 50% of the oil bill, depending on the price of this fuel, with an interest rate of 1%.
The Petrocaribe energy agreement also includes initiatives in transportation, logistics, repairs, maintenance, energy infrastructure, fuel storage and distribution, education, training and technology transfer.
On June 29, 2015, Petrocaribe celebrated its 10th anniversary and in this context the 15th Ministerial Council of Petrocaribe took place in Caracas at the Petroleos de Venezuela headquarters, in order to review progress on energy integration and issues related to the various projects in the socio-productive, geopolitical, economic, cultural and environmental fields, among others requiring a collective response and strategic orientation given regional circumstances.
One of the great challenges facing Petrocaribe is to further consolidate the proposal of the ALBA-TCP/PETROCARIBE Complementary Economic Zone, to strengthen intra-regional trade, reinforce productive sectors and promote social development through programs in different sectors; transport and communications; production chains, culture, tourism; trade and integration.
Without doubt, Petrocaribe is a powerful bastion that comprehends energy for life, facilitating the liberating and unifying path of our peoples, which both Bolívar and Chávez so longed for, in order to build a balanced and pluripolar world where solidarity, respect for sovereignty and the self-determination of peoples, social justice, humanism, cooperation and the common good are practiced over and above the counterculture and destructive logic of capitalism.
