Ghana’s efforts to reduce its dependence on imported refined petroleum products are set to receive a major boost as the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) prepares to resume full operations by October 2025.
The Acting Managing Director of TOR, Edmund Kombat, announced this during a stakeholder engagement with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Energy at Senchi on Saturday, June 21.
Mr. Kombat expressed confidence that the refinery’s Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) will be back online between September and October this year, following months of preparatory work.
The refinery, which has a nameplate capacity of 45,000 barrels per stream day, has undergone significant upgrades, including the installation of a new furnace, allowing production to scale up to 60,000 barrels per day.
This, according to Mr. Kombat, means TOR could meet up to 60% of Ghana’s daily consumption, which currently stands at around 100,000 barrels.
He explained that TOR’s shutdown in 2021 was largely due to a lack of crude oil supply rather than technical failures, adding that the refinery remains a viable and profitable asset for the country.
Mr. Kombat said, “We spend $400 million every month importing refined petroleum products. When TOR is running, we will need less than 60% of that money to import refined petroleum products because our name plate capacity is 45,000 barrels. And we recently installed a new furnace. With that new furnace, we can actually do 60,000 barrels. And nationally, we consume about 100,000 barrels per stream day, every single day. So we can do between 45 to 60% if the refinery is up.”
“The refinery is a profitable enterprise. It’s capable of refining. There has been a number of turnaround maintenance that has taken place at the refinery. And the analysis we’ve done so far, the reason why it was shut down in 2021, was actually because of lack of cruelty. So we have just put together a turnaround maintenance committee, spearheaded by the general manager, maintenance, and supervised by the deputy managing director. And every Friday, we come together to look at the steps and the things that we need to do to get the plant back. And so far, the timeline that we are seeing, between September and October, we should get the CDU back on stream,” Mr. Kombat added.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Hamdia Mohammed
