Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness reported that the planned expansion and overhaul of the Petrojam Ltd. joint venture’s 36,000-b/d hydroskimming refinery in Kingston has been placed on hold because of the continued political unrest in Venezuela.
The governments of Venezuela and Jamaica earlier this year finalized an agreement to undertake the long-planned expansion and modernization of the joint Petrojam project (OGJ Online, Feb. 23, 2017).
“The refinery upgrade has been on the table for a long time and since the escalation of events in Venezuela nothing has changed—in other words, we are no closer to a refinery upgrade,” Holness said.
The expansion would increase the refinery’s processing capacity to 50,000 b/d as well as add units for vacuum distillation, delayed coking, and diesel desulfurization.
The upgrade work was expected to total $1 billion with both the Jamaican and Venezuelan governments splitting the cost.