KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC—Petrojam, the state-owned oil refinery, has fully recovered from the fire that damaged sections of it in March of this year.
Energy minister Daryl Vaz revealed this as he provided an update during his contribution to the 2024/25 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives earlier this week,
He also noted that from January to December 2023, Petrojam supplied 11.79 million barrels of products to the local and export markets.
This, he said. It was realized from a mix of refining and importation of finished petroleum products.
“In fact, in 2023, Petrojam supplied 5,000 barrels of the special grade asphalt needed to pave the upgraded runway according to international standards at the Sangster International Airport during their improvement works over the past years,” Vaz said.
He also informed that Petrojam is tipped to supply the asphalt needed to upgrade the runway at the Norman Manley International Airport. This project will begin in the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial year.
Furthermore, approximately 50,000 barrels of asphalt were supplied during the calendar year to pave one of the island’s significant highways.
He added that the export sales volume from January to December 2023 was five million barrels, which equates to approximately US$520 million in export earnings.
Additionally, Petrojam is actively pursuing opportunities to supply players in the region with fuel oil and asphalt.
Meanwhile, Vaz pointed out that Petrojam’s main strategy for the financial year 2024/2025 is to improve operational efficiency.
He said focus areas include oil loss, crude processing, plant reliability, risk management, and environmental protection/energy conservation.
The Minister informed that the project to install facilities to convert heavy fuel oil (HFO), which will result in an estimated increase in asphalt production from 4,000 barrels per month to approximately 19,000 barrels per month, is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of the financial year 2024/25.
“This project aims to reduce the excess HFO produced by installing facilities to use HFO from storage to produce asphalt for export and local demand. This project is necessary, as there has been a fallout in demand for high sulfur fuel oil (HSFO), and the low sulfur crudes currently being processed cannot produce enough asphalt,” Mr. Vaz said.
He pointed out that the project will allow continuous asphalt production regardless of the type of crude being processed.
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