Paulwell
Omar Anderson, Gleaner Writer
THE COUNTRY will have to pay US$3 million or $180 million a month to import finished petroleum products, following last week's $90 million fire at the state-owned Petrojam refinery, Phillip Paulwell, minister of commerce, science and technology, announced
yesterday.
Petrojam refines 70 per cent of imported crude petroleum products.
Delivering a statement in the House of Representatives, the Minister said Jamaica will have to import petroleum products for the next six months. He stressed the importance of energy conservation, adding that the country will have to find additional foreign exchange to satisfy national energy demands.
Mr. Paulwell said Jamaica's total oil import bill owing to the fire, is estimated to be US$64 million ($3.8 billion) a month during the period the refinery is unavailable.
"Energy conservation will have to be a very important component of the strategy to manage energy resources and ensure supply security," he warned, noting that it was the only means through which the country could weather the current crisis.
DAMAGED PIPELINES
About 12:10 a.m. last Wednesday, a fire, the result of an explosion, damaged pipelines and towers at the
refinery.
Mr. Paulwell was adamant that there were adequate supplies of petroleum products, including cooking gas, gasolene, diesel oil, jet fuel, and heavy fuel oil. He told the House that petroleum shipments were expected from Venezuela and Trinidad on Saturday.
"Even where we have managed to secure the supplies, finished products come at a higher price as the value-added goes to the supplier, rather than to our refinery," Mr. Paulwell stated.
He also cautioned against what he called 'panic buying', noting that it serves only to create an artificially high demand.
