KINGSTON, Jamaica — After racking up losses of US$24.27 million in 2023/24 and estimated losses of US$26.7 million in 2024/25 for a combined loss of J$7.64 billion based on its audited accounts, Petrojam, the state-owned oil refinery, is projected to make a profit of less than US$1 million in the upcoming financial year that begins April 1.

This was highlighted by Opposition Spokesman on Energy Phillip Paulwell during last Friday’s sitting of the Standing Finance Committee that examined the Estimates of Expenditure for the 2025/26 fiscal year.

After stating the figures, he asked Energy Minister Daryl Vaz, who was fielding questions, “Whither the future of Petrojam?”

Paulwell said he asked the question in light of the Government’s plan that Petrojam will focus on diversifying its operations to effectively respond to market and environmental shifts.

“How are we going to move from the actual loss of US$24 million in 2023/24 to the estimated loss in 2024/25 of US$26.7 million? How we going to get from that position to a positive position during this year?” he asked.

In his response, Vaz outlined that the projection is for total sales of 12.78 million barrels of oil in 2025/26. Of that amount, 6.6 million barrels will be sold on the local market while 6.1 million barrels are for the export market.

He also outlined some of the challenges being faced by the company, including sales volumes being below budget by 2.5 million barrels, with heavy fuel oil accounting for 1.5 million barrels and low sulphur fuel oil accounting for one million barrels for the year ended January 31.

Vas disclosed that the sale of low-sulphur fuel oil was impacted primarily by the supply as the refinery experienced downtime from the fire that damaged sections of the refinery in March last year.

Additionally, falling prices affected inventory value, which fell by 10 per cent over the period, resulting in inventory losses of US$19 million.

Amid the bad financials, the outlook is positive. The minister said the projection is for Petrojam to sell an additional 1.5 million barrels of heavy fuel oil in the upcoming financial year. “Also, we don’t expect to see the downtime that affected the plant last year,” he said.

He also told the committee that Petrojam is currently exporting asphalt to Trinidad, and the amount for both the overseas and local markets should be increased in the next two months when the upgrade to the asphalt plant is completed.