The Petrojam Refinery. - File

John Myers Jr., Business Reporter

The state-owned Petro-jam escaped the wrath of Hurricane Dean, and says the gas price increases at the pump have no links to the storm.

"The damage was minimal and a big part of the reason for that is the preparations that were made by our technical and operating staff prior to the arrival (of 'Dean')," said manager of human resource development, Byron Shirley who was in charge of operations in the absence of managing director, Winston Watson.

Shirley said the refinery was shuttered to days before the storm hit on August 19.

"It is very important in these type of operations because we have all of these tanks...we had just recently completed construction of a drainage programme on the entire 76 acres of the compound so there were no surface water problems at all," he said Wednesday.

There was minor damage to the fencing around the Marcus Garvey Drive, Kingston-based refinery, he said, but nothing to affect the operational capability of the plant.

Operations suspended

Operations were suspended for two days, as a result of the hurricane, but the delivery of petroleum products resumed the day after the storm, on august 20.

Shirley said that 'Dean' did not affect the ex-refinery price of petroleum products.

However, the refinery adjusts prices weekly, according to its oil and gas import bill for the period.

That did not change in the post-hurricane period.

A check at several service stations across Kingston showed that the price for all petroleum products had increased in the week after the Category Four system ravaged sections of Jamaica.

President of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association (JGRA), Errol Edwards, said Thursday that the increases at the pumps were a direct result of Petrojam upping the ex-refinery prices for all automotive petroleum products a week ago, four days after thehurricane.

On August 16, the ex-refinery prices as announced by the state-owned oil refinery for 87 grade unleaded gasolene was $40.81 per litre, the price for unleaded 90 grade gasolene was $41.88 and automotive diesel $40.72.

Price increase

However, a week later after the hurricane hit, the prices for both 87 and 90 grade unleaded fuel was increased by 76 cents, while automotive diesel increased by 12 cents.

The latest price list published by Petrojam yesterday showed that ex-refinery price for 87 and 90 grade unleaded gasolene reflected a marginal drop, but remained higher than pre-hurricane prices by five cents, while automotive diesel went up by another 14 cents.

The fluctuations in the local petroleum trade are occurring at a time when in the last three weeks the price per barrel for crude oil has generally been declining on the premise of a weakening United States economy, which has impacted negatively on financial markets around the world.

One to two month lag

Petrojam has said in the past that there is about a one to two month lag on the effect of world prices in the local market.

Oil prices steadied at just above US$73 per barrel for light crude at the end of trading yesterday on hopes that a cut in interest rates would provide some boost for the ailing U.S. economy, as well as, on reports of declining reserves in top oil consuming states.

Jamaica buys oil mainly from Venezuela under concessionary terms.

john.myers@gleanerjm.com