Yesterday Pedro Pablo Cabral responded to last week’s calls from Texaco and Esso executives for the Dominican Petroleum Refinery (REFIDOMSA) to become more transparent so that the other companies can engage in true competition in the DR market. The REFIDOMSA Vice President and the local representative of Shell (the private sector partner in REFIDOMSA), declared that the refinery’s operations already are transparent and that Texaco and Esso know full well how REFIDOMSA arrives at its prices. Interviewed by El Siglo during a break in the monthly American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) meeting, Cabral said that the reason REFIDOMSA’s prices do not appear to reflect changes in the world crude oil price is because the Dominican Government absorbs whatever cushion there is in the form of the so-called "differential tax" used to pay foreign debt and fund government projects. He rejected all calls for REFIDOMSA to open its books and reveal details of its operating profits, asserting that since legally speaking REFIDOMSA is a privately-held firm, it is under no obligation to reveal such data to anyone other than its two shareholders, Shell and the Dominican Government.
