KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) says adequate supplies of asphalt products are now available in the market.

This following the resumption of refining operations, at the weekend, at Petrojam.

According to a release from OPM, the refinery was shut down for routine maintenance for approximately two and half months. However, during the period additional maintenance work was required which extended the downtime. This resulted in a supply challenge in the asphalt market.

General manager at Petrojam, Winston Watson says the company also experienced challenges in sourcing the commodity on the international market.

“Annually, the refinery shuts down for routine and special maintenance activities. When the refinery was down, the company was largely supplying the market with asphalt through importation,” Watson was quoted as saying in the release.

“With the restart of the refinery, we are now more than able to fulfill all outstanding asphalt orders to the National Work Agency (NWA), the National Water Commission (NWC) and other customers.

We wish to apologize to our customers for the delay that occurred while the process unit was offline,” Watson said.

The Asphalt Unit is designed to produce approximately 1,000 barrels per day.

Watson also informed that the Process Unit is now in full operation; producing the full slate of petroleum products.