A process that should have been transparent and competitive for the supply of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel to Aruba is being seriously questioned by parliamentarian Endy Croes. According to Croes, the bidding process managed by FMSA was manipulated, with decisions that put Aruba credibility in the international oil market in doubt.
According to Croes, on July 25, 2025, FMSA appointed a commission of experts to initiate a bidding process to select the company that could offer the best price for fuel supply. Companies were given until August 15 to submit their bids, and by August 19 all companies that failed to meet the requirements were officially eliminated from the process.
On that same August 19, FMSA officially requested a “best and final offer” from the companies that had passed the first phase, including Trafigura. The final deadline to submit offers was August 22.
However, Croes indicated that after this stage, FMSA repeatedly requested extensions, including a 15-day extension on September 24 that went beyond the legally stipulated deadline. On October 3, FMSA terminated the existing contract with CITGO, creating a window of only 90 days to sign a new contract with the winning company, with supply required to begin by January 1, 2026.
On October 10, FMSA requested yet another extension. At this point, a surprising development occurred: on October 17, the company NOVUM— which had neither participated in nor passed the first phase of the bidding—submitted an offer for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, without having gone through the official process.
According to Croes, this represents a violation of all public procurement principles, since a company that did not go through the legal process entered the final stage of the competition.
Furthermore, Croes revealed that during a meeting at FMSA on October 13, the evaluation committee officially informed that Trafigura was the winner of the bidding, based on having the most favorable offer for Aruba. Despite this, after that announcement, NOVUM— which was not a legal part of the process—submitted a contract, apparently to replace the company that had won the tender.
Croes stated that this manner of acting puts Aruba in a negative light in the international oil market and endangers the integrity and credibility of the country as a serious commercial partner.
At present, Aruba has no signed contract for fuel supply for January 2026, while the existing contract was already terminated on October 3. According to Croes, the confusion and mismanagement of the process will result in higher prices for consumers.
As an illustration, he compared the situation with Curaçao, where gasoline costs approximately ƒ1.90 per liter, while in Aruba the current price is around ƒ2.21 per liter—about 30 cents more expensive.