The Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) is to build a 20-megawatt wind farm near Newport, Manchester, under partnership with a British company, Renewable Energy Sustems Limited, as the agency deepens its search for alternative energy sources. 

PCJ’s Managing Director, Dr. Raymond Wright, says that the partnership would help to transfer technology to Jamaica in a way similar to other alliances that the state-owned oil refinery had forged. 

Wright cited the project now on the drawing board, as an example of the strategic direction in which the industry was moving, that is, to seek out alliances with private investors in order to enhance Jamaica’s energy producing capacity, and reduce its reliance on expensive, imported oil. 

In 2000, Jamaica’s oil bill was US$690 million, nearly twice what was paid in 1995.  Wright says he would like to see the cost begin to move in the opposite direction.  Ninety percent of the country’s energy needs is satisfied via petroleum based products. 

The PCJ executive cited the partnership established in 1999 between a subsidiary, the Petrojam Refinery, and aviation fuel suppliers; Air BP, to refuel aircraft at the island’s international airports, as part of the effort to transfer technology to Jamaica. 

“The extensive technical and international marketing expertise which Air BP has brought to the partnership has facilitated training and transfer of technology to the local operation and its employees” Wright said in a press statement this week.

The partnership he added had created “a framework for sustained growth”. 

The PCJ is the vehicle used by the state to implement its energy policy – one that is aimed at promoting investment in renewable energy sources, and ultimately cutting Jamaica’s fuel bill – its largest import cost-item. 

Wright says that US$40 million was invested during the past five years in local energy projects, primarily co-generation.  The PCJ, he said, was a conduit for investments by foreign and local private interests in the energy sector.

 “We are looking for alliances with the private sector that will drive development and marketing of energy technology”, he said. 

Wright is hoping that with a deregulated industry that can provide good return on investment, Jamaica will be able to attract part of the US$80 billion that flowed into the industry within the Caribbean and Latin America in the year 2000. 

“The energy industry is now the largest project financing sector in the hemisphere, outstripping telecommunications”, he stressed. 

Globally, US$65.8 billion was invested in the sector during 2000, with 60 percent going to North and South America.

 Wright acknowledged the need for transparent and predictable policies, for Jamaica to attract large-scale investment in the sector.

 “Given the huge investment required for renewables and conventional energy production, investors need the assurance that there is regulatory ability and policy transparency,” he noted.  “They need to know that the rules will not change unexpectedly.”

Adapted from the Business Observer January 23, 2002

back to top