Andrew Smith, Photography Editor
Dr. Raymond Wright, group managing director of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica. - ANDREW SMITH/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
WITH SOME petroleum industry analysts forecasting the price of oil to reach US$100.00 per barrel in the near future, Raymond Wright, group managing director of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), yesterday appealed to the private sector to assist government in seeking alternative sources or energy.
Speaking at University of Technology's international conference on Built Environment Issues in Small Island Developing States at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, Dr. Wright said that "The age of cheap oil is over". Predicting that oil will stabilise at US$45.00 per barrel, Dr. Wright noted that the commodity had moved from US$22.00 per barrel in 2001 to the current price of US$60.00 per barrel.
Dr. Wright called on the private sector to be involved in developing energy sources such as hydrogen fuel cells, wind power, hydroelectric power, solar energy and nuclear power. The need to develop these sources are emphasised by the fact that Jamaica's bill for imported oil in 2004 was nearly US$1 billion, which was 15 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - a measurement of economic growth - and a whopping 65 per cent of foreign exchange earnings. That is, for every US$100.00 earned, US$65.00 was spent on oil.
ONEROUS FINANCIAL BURDEN ON GOV'T
The PCJ head said that private sector involvement is necessary because it will relieve the government "of onerous financial burdens". In particular he is inviting the private sector to invest in a hydroelectric project that the PCJ hopes to establish as part of a nature park at Laughlands Great River in St. Ann. It will require an investment of US$2 million (J$120 million) and will have a capacity of 1.2 megawatts of energy.
Using the Wigton wind farm in Manchester as an example of a lack of private sector interest in the energy sector, Dr. Right stated that of the US$26.2 million the project cost, 60 per cent came from a National Commercial Bank loan, 27 per cent from a Netherlands government grant and the balance from PCJ's equity. Now, he said, private sector interests want to buy the wind farm, yet no one wished to invest in it initially.
