Since the report of a plan to alter the PetroCaribe deal was announced many Caricom heads of states have since registered their concerns over the drastic effects any such amendments could have on the respective island economies.
Caricom chairman and Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo, has since said that the body will approach Venezuela to lobby for the impending changes to "altered or delayed".
The official PetroCaribe website, www.PetroCaribe.org , states that since the signing of the PetroCaribe Energy Cooperation Agreement in 2005 and up to the first quarter of 2008, cumulative supply of oil and oil products in the framework of the initiative amounted to 59 million barrels.
The financed part of the oil bill (US$2.007 billion) accounts for a US$921 million in savings, estimated at US$14/bbl, for countries that received the supply.
Speaking after a meeting of a Special Prime Ministerial Task force set up by Caricom to craft appropriate strategies in response to the global economic crisis and its impact on the region, Jagdeo lamented that the impending changes in the agreement would present grave difficulties for some Caricom states and that these changes now will jeopardise the PetroCaribe arrangement and, therefore, put some of Caricom countries at a disadvantage when they most need this support.
For example countries like Antigua which has lost 35 per cent of its income in the past year; Jamaica, which has been in a recession since the fourth quarter of 2007 when the island's economy declined by 1.3 per cent; and Barbados, whose economy contracted by 2.1 per cent this year with net general government debt will increase to 44 per cent of GDP.
Additionally since many of these countries budgetary plans are based on the PetroCaribe arrangement, they will now have to embark on drastic fiscal adjustments for 2009/2010.
These however have not been the only concerns that member countries have expressed with the PetroCaribe deal.
Open press reporting has documented that the majority of the signatory countries are either not receiving fuel shipments or are receiving sporadic shipments that do little to meet the internal needs of these nations.
Only Jamaica and Cuba are receiving regular shipments, and it is widely rumored that Cuba is paying very little or nothing at all for its fuel shipments, owing to Venezuelan president Chavez's friendship with the Cuban government.
Venezuelan oil minister Rafael Ramirez acknowledged in December 2007 that his nation was shipping far less oil than previously expected; PetroCaribe members receive 145,000 barrels daily (rather than the 300,000 barrels initially planned), and of these, 95,000 went to Cuba.
However, it was reported that at the last PetroCaribe meeting in St Kitts earlier this year, a proposal was put forward by Venezuela, in principle, about a new repayment scheme Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit alluded to the fact that this may have resulted from the failure of some member states to meet their financial obligations to Caracas and thus that Caricom members may have had a big part to play in Chavez's decision to alter the arrangements.
In addition reports out of Caracas suggest that there is some concern about the way the 25-year, one per cent per annum credit line given to the 18 Caribbean countries, is being utilised.
Whether Chavez alters the arrangement or not, it is clear that these Caribbean countries are at the mercy of "El Comandante". Ironically, prior to signing, many critics of the agreement had warned that by making themselves dependent on easy oil financing from Venezuela, Caribbean countries were making themselves vulnerable to Caracas.
Only Barbados seems to have resisted the temptation.
