PETROJAM to Produce Petcoke And Sulphur
Petrojam’s Project Manager, Andrea Reid says Petrojam
will introduce two new products, petcoke and sulphur,
once the capacity of the refinery has been expanded
through its Refinery Upgrade Project.
Mrs. Reid said "the petcoke that will come from the
Delayed Coker Unit will be used for electricity
generation, and the sulphur that we will recover from
the products will also be able to be used, locally, to
make sulphuric acid. They can be used for fertilisers,
etcetera."
As part of the upgrade process, facilities will be
installed to produce a much lower level of sulphur in
diesel, which will meet current specifications. Deep
conversion technologies especially the Delayed Coker
Unit which will convert the heavy fuel oil into higher
valued products will be employed.
She said that the upgrade was necessary as Jamaica needs
to maintain some level of energy security, and the
refinery is viewed as a strategic asset of the
Government, although there are some challenges affecting
its long term viability.
She added that "the issue of market demand is going to
be resolved, because we are going to increase the
capacity of the crude unit from 35,000 to 50,000 barrels
per day, and also increase the capacity of the gasoline
production unit."
We also have challenges, because people have become more concerned about the environment, and so the products that we make have to meet more stringent environmental requirements and, because about half of our production is low value fuel oil, we also need to be able to upgrade that fuel oil into higher value products, to increase the profitability of the refinery and to be able to keep prices where they are right now," she said.
"We will be making some vacuum gas oil, which will be exported and which will also add to the foreign exchange earning capacity of the country," she added.
In terms of the timeline for the three-phased project, the Project Manager informed that the Front End Engineering Design (FEED), which falls under the first phase, is expected to be completed in a couple of weeks.
The meeting, to discuss the EIA Report for Petrojam's Refinery Upgrade Project, was the final in a series of consultations carried out over a one-year period.
General Manager of Petrojam, Winston Watson, said that the project is a joint venture with Venezuela Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company of Venezuela.
"We believe we have an extremely viable project, which will offer major benefits to Jamaica and the people of Jamaica," he said. He also noted that the project will entail the upgrading of some existing processing units and adding new processing units and waste treatment units.
Mr. Watson said that the project is of national
importance and is expected to achieve a number of
technical and national objectives, including reducing
the importing of finished petroleum products, and
increasing the refinery's capacity to meet market
demand.