KINGSTON, Jamaica — Petrojam officials say it would take a multi-layer of collusion for fuel to be pilfered from the refinery, as it has an elaborate security system in place which is constantly reviewed and upgraded to prevent loss by theft.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which continued discussions on the Auditor General’s 2018 report on operations at Petrojam and its parent company, the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, General Manager of Petrojam, Winston Watson explained that “A lot of the mistake that people make is they will see a truck in Greenwich farm for example, and they will assume that it must be Petrojam’s product. But thats not necessarily true. One, the truck passes the gate of the refinery, the  custody transfers to the marketing company and then there is another set of controls around how you treat the truck once its passes the gate. When it is loaded we have our security, our metering system, and then we seal it”.

Watson theorised however that gallons of fuel could be taken unnoticed from a truck beyond this point, but that the loss would be to the marketing companies, not Petrojam.

In March, the police charged a 76-year-old woman in connection with the a find of nine 45-gallon drums of assorted fuel seized in a raid of premises in Greenwich Town, St Andrew, which was linked to oil loss at Petrojam.

At the same time, energy minister Fayval Williams told the public that a dive mission conducted by the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Coast Guard had not uncovered any illegal attachments to Petrojam’s underwater petroleum pipelines.

“On a routine basis we have a very strong security presence that tracks all of these types of movement – people moving products being transferred, products leaving the refinery going to Montego Bay. They track all the volume that’s moving in and out and around the refinery. So we are not aware of any pipeline, at least not in my time,” Watson stated.

Meanwhile, Manager of Safety, Environment, Quality Assurance and Security at Petrojam, Leon Jarrett further explained that prior to Watson’s appointment as General Manager, a pipeline, which was attached to the refinery’s sub-sea line, was intercepted, but that the security system has staved off any further attempts.

“There is a 24-hour marine patrol, there are barriers which have been subjected to external audits by the international port and security authorities and have been found to be adequate. The system requires examining our vulnerable areas from pipelines which traverse public space to those near to the fence-line,” he told the PAC, noting that there have been attempts to beat the security system but that, “for you to get through at the (loading) rack, it’s like you putting in your pin number – for any theft to occur it would take an elaborate collusion at many layers – staff, security, and the external marketers representatives”.

He noted that the security system also involves the rotation of personnel.  “The ‘ATM’ system is audited by the manufacturers’ representative and any weaknesses that may be seen are addressed by way of IT interception and upgrades. The system is not a static one, and is upgraded periodically”.

According to the Auditor General’s report, between 2013 and 2018 Petrojam reported that it used 1.5 million Bbls (barrels) of oil, valuing approximately $12.8 billion, during normal refinery production, but could not account for 600,684 barrels of oil valuing $5.2 billion. “The reported unaccountable losses increased over the period by 60 per cent to 184,951 Bbls in 2017-18 from 115,793 Bbls in 2013-14,” the report said.

Petrojam indicated that inventory inaccuracies, under estimated flaring and fuel consumption, vapour losses from slopping, un-reported/uncaptured shutdown, leaks and losses between product transfers were some of the factors contributing to oil losses.

Petrojam further identified oil loss sources to include product transfers from ships at the docks and Kingston Storage tanks, transfers between the Kingston Refinery and Kingston loading rack, and loss on sales from the Montego-Bay, New Port West, asphalt loading rack, the report outlined.

The Government has ordered a forensic audit of those losses, and a report is expected to be made public soon.

— Alphea Saunders