Paulwell calls for Venezuela strategy and urgent rescue plan

Opposition Spokesperson on Energy and Telecommunications, Phillip Paulwell, MP disclosed the full scale of Petrojam’s financial deterioration, revealing losses of $4 billion for the year ended March 2025 and a projected further loss of $4 billion for the year ending March 2026, representing three consecutive years of substantial decline for an enterprise that was once consistently profitable.

“The Jamaican people cannot continue to underwrite a failing enterprise without a clear strategy for recovery”, said Paulwell. He noted that a clear development pathway for the refinery had been established by the previous administration, including plans for expansion and modernisation of a facility now more than 40 years old. He called on the Government to reactivate the 2006 Muse, Stancil and Company report rather than commission yet another consultancy exercise.

He expressed deep concern that the Zacca report, completed in 2019, was only formally dismissed by the Minister at a Standing Finance Committee meeting in March 2026, seven years after its completion.

Paulwell also identified a significant strategic opportunity arising from the lifting of sanctions against Venezuela, noting that Venezuelan crude is ideally matched to the processing capacity of the Petrojam refinery. He proposed that Jamaica pursue a revived arrangement modelled on Petrocaribe, extended to include liquefied natural gas, as Venezuela moves towards the commercial exploitation of its substantial proven natural gas reserves.

“We have not yet secured the full benefits of our liquefied natural gas arrangements because we have never achieved meaningful competition in that market. That must change.”