FRESH discussion about upgrading the Petrojam refinery in Kingston is following Monday night's raging fire, which preliminary estimates have said could cost the state-owned company US$1 million.
It is yet to be established just what led to the blazing inferno that lit up the Kingston's sky on Monday evening but one cause mooted is that rubbing metals in the bottom of one of the tanks sparked an ignition sending the container of flammable liquids up in flames.
Of the four tank areas that form the refinery, one was damaged irreparably and two sustained severe damage.
Petrojam technical manager Richard Jones said: "Our engineering team is currently conducting an investigation which is standard procedure. As yet we have no clear idea just when we will go public with our findings. There are media reports that say the damage caused by the fire has been put at US$1 million but this has yet to be established by our findings.
"The fire has not prevented our bottom loading facility from functioning and the refinery is still able to supply gasolene products. Our managing director Winston Watson will be putting out a release shortly, outlining the current state of events and the course of action to be pursued."
Mr. Jones further added that it was now likely that the discussions as to upgrading the refinery would take place. Petrojam's Kingston refinery is an old one referred to in the industry as "a simple refinery" that was used for many years by Esso before the state run outfit took it over.
It does not have a "cat cracker" which has the ability to upgrade a lower value base fuel to a higher value gasolene type fuel, a prerequisite for most modern refineries.
Shell (Jamaica) boss Nick Shorthose said: "I have heard that the estimated damage has been put at US$1 million. I do think that with the loss of petroleum products as a result of the fire and when you factor in the ex-refinery price, you are now looking at a US$60 a barrel (bbl) scenario in Jamaica."
Texaco (Jamaica) operations manager, Errol Phane said :"The real heroes here are the emergency services who dealt admirably with the fire. We had no problem with our jet fuel supplies or octane 87 gasolene but our delivery of octane 90 was late with us unable to pick up supplies until 10.30 on Tuesday morning.
"I think there may be some minor supply problems with the 87 product and Petrojam will now have to review its shipping schedule but I don't think there will be heavy negative impact on motorists."
National Fuels Limited marketing manager Les Melhado said the fire affected only 10 per cent of the refinery's capacity. The company was apprehensive when there was a run at its pumps on Monday night, but everything seems to have settled down.
"People's tanks are now "fullish" and so there isn't a problem but come the weekend, that's when we will fully gauge this thing. I would expect there will be a little problem with the supply of octane 87 for the time being at least," he said.
Mr. Shorthose said: "There was a big pull on volumes at the pumps on Monday night but I activated a contingency plan. On Tuesday morning our supplies were three hours late but we have not suffered unduly as a result. I would expect that by the end of today (Friday) things will be back to normal."
How Shell reacted to the fire.
8.30 - Fire at the Petrojam refinery breaks out.
8.45 - Events brought to Nick Shorthose's attention
9.00 - Makes plans to bring supplies in by truck from the Montego Bay refinery
10.00- Has a cargo ship from Trinidad made ready to ship in supplies to cope with shortfall in Jamaica
4.00 - Emergency services stand down.
