Curoil requests extra time to complete modernisation of fuel installations

KRALENDIJK – Curoil Bonaire has submitted a request to the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT) for an extension of the compliance deadline, as a precautionary measure. According to the company, the renovation of the fuel installations at Hato and at the airport is more than 90 per cent complete. Curoil Bonaire’s current permit expires on 1 April 2026.

The company states that most of the construction work will be finished around 20 March, after which a period of testing and certification will follow. "Curoil Bonaire is confident that, despite the intense time pressure, the work will be completed with care and professionalism," the company writes in a press release.

The extension request is intended to accommodate any potential delays during the testing phase and is therefore not the result of problems with the renovation itself.

Permits

As of 1 April 2026, the temporary permits for both locations — Curoil Airport and Curoil Hato — will expire, and the standard, stricter safety requirements will come into effect.

The storage facilities at the airport and at Hato are owned by the government-owned company Oil Trading Bonaire (OTB), but are operated by Curoil. The nuisance permits, originally granted in 2014, were revised in 2021 and temporarily reduced pending the construction of a completely new fuel terminal.

The new fuel terminal at the Airport Zuid site could no longer be built in time before the temporary permits for the existing fuel terminals expired. There was also a lack of long-term support for fuel storage at this location.

In March 2025, the terminal project, initially called Brandstof Terminal Bonaire and later renamed Bonaire Bon Transition (BBT), was definitively cancelled by the central government in consultation with the Public Entity of Bonaire (OLB). At that point, the government asked Curoil to modernise the existing installations after all.

Investment

Curoil states that it has made an investment of over six million dollars in the Hato facilities in less than a year. The ILT imposed a preventive penalty of $500,000 per month should the modernisation not be completed on time.

Extension as a precautionary measure

Curoil Bonaire says the request for an extension is a proactive step. The company wants to prevent unexpected findings during the testing phase from causing problems just before the 1 April deadline. The expectation is that the extra time will ultimately not be needed.

For the longer term, Curoil Bonaire acquired the former BOPEC site in the north of the island in October 2025. The transfer of the ground lease also marks the start of a large-scale remediation of the heavily contaminated site. The intention is to develop a new, permanent fuel storage facility there in the future.