Platinum Pulse
The Oil Empire That Quietly Died: Why Trinidad Now Buys Fuel From Jamaica
Trinidad and Tobago has been in the oil business for 123 years. Jamaica has never produced a single commercial barrel of crude in its history.
So why did a tanker leave Kingston on 26 January 2025 and unload fuel oil at Pointe-à-Pierre three days later?
The answer is not the one everyone is repeating. This is not a story about a small island out-competing an energy superpower. It is a story about a decision taken in Port of Spain on 30 November 2018 that almost nobody outside Trinidad remembers — and a technical fact about Jamaica's refinery that explains why Kingston had this fuel to sell in the first place.
In this Platinum Pulse documentary we go through the contracts, the parliamentary transcripts, the audit reports and the actual barrel volumes, and we land somewhere far stranger than the headlines.
WHAT THIS VIDEO COVERS
- The date Trinidad's only refinery stopped refining — and why Paria Fuel Trading had to be invented
- How Jamaica actually got Petrojam (it did not build it, and the reason it owns it involves a tax negotiation)
- The delayed coker Venezuela promised, never delivered, and why that single missing unit explains the entire export deal
- What Paria's own written statement says about the purpose of the arrangement
- The Auditor General's 2018 report, the US$1,000 birthday cake, and the scandal that nearly ended Petrojam
- The real numbers: US$90 million, 540,000 barrels, US$50.2 million, 4.5 million barrels since 2024, US$500 million in export earnings
- Why Petrojam is losing money while exporting — and where the value actually goes
- Why Jamaica sells asphalt to the country that owns the world's largest natural asphalt lake
- The Paria diving tragedy of February 2022 and the Commission of Enquiry findings
- Trinidad's 2026 restart drive: the Ramnarine committee, Indian Oil, Tecnimont's US$50 million assessment, and the deadline nobody is talking about
- The Dragon field, Venezuela, and the shadow over Trinidad's entire energy future
- The expiry date Jamaica's own energy minister named out loud
WHY IT MATTERS TO YOU
If you send money home, foreign exchange earnings affect what your transfer is worth when your family spends it. If you are weighing a return, a business, or a career in the region, the difference between a headline and a strategy is the difference between a good decision and an expensive one. We do not hype. We show the documents.
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SOURCES & FURTHER READING:
Petrojam Limited — "Petrojam Resumes Fuel Exports to Trinidad & Tobago" (press release, February 2025)
Petrojam Limited — "About Us": company history, 1964 Esso Kingston Refinery, 1982 acquisition, 2006 PDV Caribe sale, Compulsory Acquisition (Shares in Petrojam Limited) Act 2019
Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited — public statement on the VLSFO agreement with Petrojam (February 2025)
Jamaica Information Service — "Petrojam Generates Over US$500 Million From Fuel Exports Since 2024" (20 May 2025)
Jamaica Observer — "Petrojam lands US$90-m Trinidad fuel deal" (2 February 2025)
Jamaica Observer — "Petrojam racks up $7.6b in losses since 2023" (11 March 2025)
Jamaica Observer — "US$15-million upgrade for Petrojam" (7 May 2026)
Jamaica Observer — "Gas tax under fire" (8 April 2026)
Jamaica Gleaner — Editorial: "The Petrojam question" (10 March 2026)
Jamaica Gleaner — "Petrojam reopens Montego Bay fuel facility after hurricane repairs" (December 2025)
Trinidad Express — Editorial: "Petroleum lessons" (February 2025)
Trinidad Express — "Sagewan calls for transparency on Petrojam deal" (5 February 2025)
Trinidad Express — "After Rubio's pledge of aid, union backs refinery restart" (27 February 2026)
Trinidad Guardian — "Paria: No third party in Petrojam deal" (February 2025)
Trinidad Guardian — "Refinery restart talks spark excitement, hope in south Trinidad" (March 2026)
Trinidad Guardian — "Patriotic backs US$50m refinery study" (March 2026)
Trinidad Guardian — "Refinery restart faces scepticism from industry expert despite Govt push" (2026)
DISCLAIMER:
This video is an independent journalistic and educational analysis produced by Platinum Pulse. All figures, dates, contract values and quoted findings are drawn from the publicly available sources listed above, including government press releases, parliamentary records, statutory audit and commission reports, and established regional news organisations. Every effort has been made to verify accuracy at the time of publication.
© Platinum Pulse. All rights reserved.
#Jamaica #Trinidad #Caribbean
Published Sep 3, 2026