Holland to benefit from NuStar's expansion

As stated on several occasions, the St. Eustatius government is in favor of NuStar expansions plans. Economical development of the island is the main argument. Commissioner Van Putten in The Daily Herald of September 9, 2011: "The island must see a significant contribution in order for the Executive Council to give its fiat to any expansion plan".  Van Putten was on a working visit in the Netherlands to discuss the NuStar proposal with the Dutch Ministries.

The Dutch Minister of Kingdom Affairs made it very clear that St. Eustatius government is the one to decide on the expansion. Given that fact, it is very interesting to follow NuStar's lobby in The Hague. NuStar seems to pay frequent visits to members of parliament in The Hague, and former Minister of foreign affairs, Ben Bot himself is one of the lobbyist trying to win them over.

So what's in it for the Dutch?

NuStar and its predecessors always paid very low taxes on the island. Since 10 October 2010, the island of St. Eustatius no longer is part of the Netherlands Antilles, but became a public entity of the Netherlands. One of the first things the Dutch changed in St. Eustatius was the tax system. The main increase in tax revenue of NuStar will go directly to The Hague, as a local council member states in Statia News. 

St. Eustatius got extra funding from Holland for education and health care. In other important areas, local government is very much on its own. The government faces huge problems according to the same council member:

• "Government cannot pay decent salaries, which makes it very hard to attract quality personnel. Also many of our locals don’t want to come back home because of this.
•  Government buildings are almost beyond repair and not suitable to work in. There is no money on the budget for maintenance.
• All our roads and other infrastructure are in a deplorable state and need urgent attention.
• There is not one cent for investment. Instead there is a multi-million dollar investment deficit with their roads, electricity supply system."

With an annual "free resource" of 7,4 million dollar coming from Holland, it is impossible for St. Eustatius government to get the island's infrastructure on an acceptable level.

So this is actually a very smart move of Dutch government. They collect the money and leave local government to deal with angry citizens, ravaged eco-systems and destroyed archeological sites.

Open letter to NuStar Board of Directors

Dear Sirs,

This letter serves to inform you about current developments involving NuStar Energy L.P. (NYSE: NS). NuStar Energy L.P. is the second largest oil terminal operator in the USA and the fourth largest in the world. Their largest facility by far is located on the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Eustatius. With its capacity of 13 million barrels the terminal on St. Eustatius alone can hold as much as 25 per cent of all NuStar's terminals in the USA combined (50.6 million barrels). The operation on this island is therefore a key factor in NuStar Energy's overall results.

At the NAPTP MLP Investor Conference in May 2011, NuStarGP Holdings, LLC (NYSE: NSH), which owns general partner interests in NuStar Energy L.P. and manages the business affairs of NuStar Energy L.P., stated that they were constructing another million barrels capacity on St. Eustatius. However, these plans have generated considerable unrest amongst the population of the island. Petitions against the current plans have been organized. Protests against the proposed expansion have led to repeated questions being asked to the relevant Ministers in the Dutch Parliament. Interest groups have also appealed to UNESCO.

The concerns and protests are about the proposed location of NuStar's additional tanks and associated new jetty. Their proximity to residential areas, schools, the island's only swimming beach, recreational areas and the airport is considered a threath to the inhabitants' health, safety and general quality of life. Unique eco systems and coral reefs will be damaged and limit the chances to get on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

In addition, unique cultural heritage will be affected or even destroyed by the current plans as the site includes extensive 18th century slave cemeteries and a private colonial plantation cemetery dating back to 1719. The destruction of slave cemeteries is a particularly sensitive issue on an island of which the population predominantly descends from enslaved Africans.

 

What affects the inhabitant's perception of NuStar Energy as a responsible corporate citizen is the fact that alternatives are available. However, these will involve higher investments and NuStar is therefore consistently turning them down. This leads to the notion that in the eyes of NuStar Energy, the people of St. Eustatius - the island that contributes more to NuStar Energy's profits than any other of their sites - are not worth spending more money for. This negative perception of NuStar Energy has already started to spread - to the Dutch politcal arena and internationally.
http://no-to-nustar-expansion-steustatius.blogspot.com/

 

Good corporate citizenship has rightly become an important part of a company's sustainability. NuStar Energy L.P. is currently putting theirs at risk by not showing respect to the community that harbors the biggest contributor to their profits.

 

Sincerely 

UNESCO Nomination File: St. Eustatius as World Heritage Site

Why we think St. Eustatius is of "outstanding universal value" and can meet the cultural and natural criteria of UNESCO:

• Cultural: "Bears a unique or exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared"(UNESCO 3rd criteria)
  See blog entry "Heritage Trail"

• Natural: "Contains the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation." (UNESCO 10th criteria) 
  See blog entry "Statia: 'Ecological wonder of nature'"

Statia is also of great value to UNESCO's Slave Route Project

SEAD wrote a letter to UNESCO to help us protect our outstanding universal values. Read the article in The Daily Herald (July 18, 2011)

History of Schotsenhoek Plantation

"There is a lot of commotion around the proposed plans to expand the oil terminal on Sint Eustatius. It is primarily built on the former cattle plantation “Schotsenhoek.” It is interesting to know some of the history of the plantation and its former owners. In this article I will also quote from correspondence with my friend Walter Hellebrand of Sint Eustatius."



Article in The Daily Herald of Friday, August 19, 2011 on the history of the Schotsenhoek Plantation by Will Johnson. Read the full article