Petrojam Pursuing Infrastructure Expansion This Year

State oil refinery Petrojam Limited will this year be pursuing the construction of an additional asphalt storage tank, to enable the entity to enhance its inventory levels and meet increasing product demand.

This, against the background of projected improvements in asphalt sales volumes from 154 kilo-barrels (kbbls) – one kilo-barrel = 1,000 barrels – in fiscal year 2023/24 to 234 kbbls in 2024/25.

That undertaking will be supported by planned capital expenditure totalling US$22.54 million.

Details of this and other programmed activities by Petrojam are outlined in the Jamaica Public Bodies Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the Fiscal Year ending March 2025.

Meanwhile, Petrojam has earmarked 71 days of downtime in its 2024/25 operational plan for essential capital maintenance and plant improvements.

During this period, work will be undertaken to facilitate, among other things, catalyst regeneration, electrical infrastructure upgrading, replacement of pipelines, recycling of compressors as well as effecting of repairs to several tanks across the entity’s plant on Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston.

Petrojam has also set a 2024/25 crude oil sales target of 14.14 million barrels, up from 12.68 million last year.

This, against the background of an anticipated average procurement price of US$89.20 per barrel.

Petrojam Limited, the island’s sole oil refinery, was incorporated in October 1982 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ).

The facility processes crude oil, sourced primarily from Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia, into various finished products, including liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), auto diesel oil, turbo fuel, heavy fuel oil, asphalt, and unleaded gasolene.