Honduras Joins
Venezuela-Led Energy
Security Alliance
Honduran President
Manuel Zelaya announced
on Sunday that Honduras
will join the
Venezuela-led
Petrocaribe initiative
on Monday.
Petrocaribe was created
in 2005 as a regional
energy security
alliance, through which
Venezuela sells oil to
Caribbean nations with
flexible credit terms.
According to news
reaching here, Zelaya
told a Honduras radio
station that Chavez had
signed the agreement on
Honduras' joining of the
Petrocaribe at the
closing session of the
Bolivarian Alternative
for the Americas summit
in Venezuela's capital
Caracas.
Honduran Foreign
Minister Milton Jimenez
would return to
Tegucigalpa from Caracas
with the signed
document. "On Monday I
will go ahead and sign
it, so that it will then
constitute a formal
agreement between
Honduras and Venezuela,"
said the president.
Zelaya added he would
immediately send the
Petrocaribe document to
the Congress for
approval.
"I hope that we will
have Venezuelan ships
here carrying fuel oil
within 60 days," he
said.
Under the agreement,
Venezuela would sell oil
to Honduras at
preferential prices,
with 60 percent of the
payment to be paid
within 90 days and 40
percent over 25 years,
with a two-year grace
period and 1 percent
annual interest. The
Honduran government said
it would buy 20,000
barrels of fuel oil a
day.
|
|
