Port Costs

Paul,

The information that follows was provided by Luis Ayala Col?n Sucrs., Inc, the PDVSA shipping agency in Puerto Rico. These are actual port costs using the LPG/C Nelly Maersk which is the vessel servicing Empire Gas Company this year.

The following are the port costs estimates (quite close):

1. Barrels discharge per trip at CORCO - 30,000 bbls., Tropigas - 24,000 bbls., Liquilux - 20,000 bbls., One trip is three ports and another trip is two ports per month.

2. Discharge rates were given to us on an hourly basis and the agents took the average time per docking: CORCO - 48 hours or 625 bbls/hr., Tropigas - 28 hours or 857 bbls/hr., Liquilux - 20 hours or 1,000 bbls/hr.,

3. Port costs at:

Tallaboa $18,000
CORCO $18,000
Tropigas $13,000
Liquilux $17,000

Liquilux port costs are per the Port of Ponce tariffs which are different from the Puerto Rico Ports Authority tariffs
which apply to Tallaboa, Guayanilla and San Juan. At San Juan (Tropigas) the tug boats cost less due to the fact
that all tug boats companies are docked within the San Juan bay.

4. Port costs are not included in the vessel costs.

5. Port costs includes dockage, wharfage, harbor pilots, tug boats, and harbor fees. ProCaribe charges the
dockage and warfage to the shipping agent. All these costs are charged by the shipping agent to the owner of the vessel, the owner of the vessel then charges the charter party.

6. Other costs: Crudita - $4/barrel., Customs - $610.00 (Custom entry service $125, Custom duty deposit $485).,
Laboratories - $135/test (3 - 5 per ship)., Inspectors - $0.1780 per long ton., Loss Control Agent - $0.35 per MT.,

7. Days steaming from Jose Venezuela to Puerto Rico and in between island ports:

Jose to Puerto Rico (Ponce, Guayanilla and Tallaboa) - 36 hours
San Juan to Jose - 46 hours
CORCO to Ponce - 2 hours
Ponce to San Juan - 14 hours
CORCO to San Juan - 14 hours

These timings are from dock to dock.

8. ProCaribe annual expenses:

Year 2000 2001 (1CE)
Payroll $554M $525M
O + M $1,447M $1,534M
Depreciation $475M $492M
Taxes other than income $211M $250M
Other expenses $160M $86M

I hope this figures can help you in your model. If you have any questions please call me.

Saludos