On Tuesday, June 3rd, 2003, NATIONAL officially announced it would be taking over Royal Dutch Shell’s operations, which had been established in Haiti since 1932. The ceremony took place at the Caribe hotel in Juvénat in the presence of the Republic’s President and members of the business community.

All of Shell assets in Haiti have been purchased by Distributeurs Nationaux S.A (DINASA) and will now be operated under the commercial brand: NATIONAL. Furthermore, re-branding of every Shell station in the country will commence within the next 12 months.  The final purchase amount was not disclosed.

At NATIONAL’s launch party, the GB Group’s Chairman, Gilbert Bigio, gave assurances that this new entity would manage its newly acquired operations according to international standards and is yet another example of the partners’ commitment to the Haitian economy. Mr. Bigio also stated that NATIONAL would make the fight for environmental protection through reforestation programs one of its main social awareness objectives.

Royal-Dutch Shell held the most important oil installations in the country.  The other remaining oil distributors in Haiti are Total, Esso & Texaco.