THE start date for the modernisation of Jamaica’s oil refinery, Petrojam, appears to have been brought to the front of the queue of Venezuelan expansion projects.
Already delayed by five years, the project failed to take off due to the inability of the owners
Whatever else might have been the relevance of Venezuela‘s presidential election to Jamaica, the most immediate concern for Kingston was the future of the PetroCaribe energy agreement.
It is little wonder, therefore, that our Government – particularly the energy minister, Mr Phillip Paulwell – has hardly masked its glee at President
Petrojam has projected that consumers could see a slight ease in pumps prices for the current fiscal year. The refinery which is majority owned by the government, in its forecast for the 2012/2013 fiscal year says while it expects prices to remain strong in spite of continuing economic uncertainties, the average selling prices could fall about 3 percent. Petrojam did not say how it expects the reduction in oil prices to affect prices at the pumps. However since the start of the year pump prices have moved up by about 8 percent. http://rjrnewsonline.com/business/petrojam-projects-slight-dip-petrol-prices JAMAICA’S oil import bill hit US$2.4 billion in 2011, reflecting a 54 per cent increase over the previous year. Last year The state-owned oil refinery Petrojam has dismissed claims that it obtains crude oil at discounted prices under the PetroCaribe agreement with Venezuela but does not pass on the lower costs to consumers. “It is not at a discount to Petrojam,” the refinery’s general manager, Winston Watson, declared at last week’s energy meeting at the refinery complex in Kingston. There is he said a lot of misinformation and misdirected facts in the marketplace. “We buy the crude oil from Venezuela at a competitive THE Government is not using the pricing mechanism of the state-owned refinery, Petrojam, to jack up the price of petrol in order to benefit from increased tax revenues, Petrojam officials have said. General Manager of Petrojam, Winston Watson, said yesterday that the company
