 

WHAT’S NEW

  

OFFICIAL OPENING OF PETROJAM ETHANOL LIMITED               
                           

Petrojam Ethanol Limited (PEL), is a wholly owned subsidiary of Petrojam
Limited.   Petrojam Ethanol Limited has upgraded and expanded the
Ethanol Dehydration Plant with funds from Petrojam Limited and Coimex
Trading Company of Brazil, to produce fuel grade ethanol from hydrous
alcohol.  Production of ethanol commenced in September 2005 and both
PEL and Coimex have entered into an agreement to market the ethanol
produced to the United States of America. The official opening of the
newly refurbished plant took place on November 23, 2005.

 

PETROCARIBE AGREEMENT:  A BI-LATERAL AGREEMENT TO UPGRADE THE REFINERY

On August 23, 2005, the PetroCaribe Energy Cooperation Agreement was
signed between Jamaica and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for
collaboration on a joint project to upgrade the Petrojam Refinery. 
This PetroCaribe Bilateral Agreement will also bring both long-term and
short-term benefits to Jamaica’s energy sector.

 Work on the upgrade of the Refinery has already begun with plans
already far advanced in the redesign of the Plant for increasing
production throughput from 36,000 barrels per day to 50,000 barrels per
day.  This will allow Petrojam to export petroleum products to
neighbouring countries.

The upgrade, estimated to cost US$300 million, will be undertaken by
Petrojam in partnership with the State-owned Petroleum Company of
Venezuela (PDVSA) and is scheduled for completion in 2009.  Venezuela
will also share technical expertise to ensure the smooth implementation
of the upgraded facility.  To ensure full participation at all levels
of the project, PDVSA has established an office in Jamaica to manage
Venezuela’s input in the project.  The Petrojam Refinery, a small
refinery with a simple hydro-skimming design, typically produces about
45% of heavy fuel oil, a low margin product from the type of crude oil
it normally processes.  The upgrade will redesign and reconfigure the
Refinery to process heavier, less costly crude oil from Venezuela, which
will reduce the proportion of heavy fuel oil produced, and increase
profitability on the sale of refinery products, manufactured by the
upgraded refinery.



Website: http://www.pcj.com/petrojam/whats_new.htm

