UPDATE 1-Petrojam back up to 90 pct capacity after accident

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By Horace Helps

KINGSTON, June 23 (Reuters) - The Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica's oil refinery is back up to 90 percent of capacity after a shipping accident damaged its pier but full repairs will take up to 18 months, a company official said on Tuesday.

"We are about 90 percent normalcy now," Winston Watson, managing director of the company known as Petrojam, told Reuters on Tuesday.

The Kingston refinery's capacity is 35,000 barrels per day.

An oil ship, the M/T Great News, crashed into the refinery's loading dock on June 1, damaging several pipelines, smashing a heavy duty crane and briefly idling the refinery.

"We have done temporary repairs, which have allowed us to function, but the overall repairs are ongoing and we estimate that to take up to 18 months to complete," Watson said.

"The accident affected us badly and at one time we could not get any product in and had to make alternative arrangements," he said.

"We can receive crude through the temporary fixing of the dock and the refinery is operating as normal," Watson said.