Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Dr. Kingsley Antwi-Boasiako has indicated that the refinery is an important infrastructure to Ghana and still rakes in loads of profit for the country.
He specified that with regards to energy security, every country with a refinery is described as lucky. ”When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, borders were closed and some countries placed an embargo on the exportation of some products of theirs. It can be that we reach a point where the finished products of petroleum we import suffer the same fate, and if that happens we have crude oil which can be refined by TOR for local consumption.”
According to him, although TOR is currently not refining crude, it has signed an 11 million barrels of oil towing contract with Vitol. “We refine the oil on their behalf and have done 9 million barrels. We are currently working on reconciliation issues while the IMC is also in talks with potential partners negotiating a contract.”
In an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, Dr. Antwi-Boasiako added that the machinery at TOR are in great condition to refine at any given time. “We have machines to distil the crude to get different products so immediately we are done with the contractual issues, we will start operating the refinery. The contractual issues are as important as the refinery itself because if there are not done thoroughly we will incur losses. So I’ll tell you TOR is potentially viable.”
Background
The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), has queried and interdicted some of its staff pending the conclusion of investigations into the disappearance of fuel, product storage, and transfer losses at the refinery.
This is part of recommendations by an interim management committee, which was inaugurated in June 2021, to oversee the affairs of the company as part of the government’s efforts to restructure the company.
TOR, which is Ghana’s first and only refinery, has not been operational for some time now due to a myriad of challenges.
The investigations by the interim management committee revealed a number of incidents related to product storage and transfer losses, including but not limited to the disappearance of 105,927 litres of gas oil on 4th September 2021, which belongs to a BDC client.
There is also the disappearance of 18 drums of electrical cables worth GHS 10.4 million from the Technical Storehouse of TOR, discovered in April 2021.
