The state-owned Petrojam oil refinery is to restart the sale and distribution of petrol at 3:00 p.m. today at its generating facilities at 96 Marcus Garvey Drive, Kingston.

This was revealed by Minister of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, Phillip Paulwell. He, however, revealed that Petrojam could not begin its refinery processes due to the islandwide electricity outage; he also assured the nation that Petrojam had enough generating capacity to begin distribution which should last into the evening.

The minister also said that he was to receive a report from the Jamaica Public Service on its assessment of the national grid. This assessment should determine when electricity will be restored to the island. The minister, however, said that tourist areas in the west of the island should receive priority treatment.

The minister will end a busy day with a meeting with the Consumer Affairs Commission and then the major suppliers of food and hardware supplies to assess the levels of goods in the island, as the rush before the hurricane could have compromised supplies.