Government set to revive Tema Oil Refinery with strategic investment

The Minister of State at the Energy Ministry, Herbert Krapah, has reiterated the government’s commitment to reviving the ailing Tema Oil Refinery.

He stated that plans are underway to secure a strategic investor for the company.

Currently, the refinery operates at about 45,000 barrels per stream day, well below its capacity due to a lack of investment.

Much of the company’s infrastructure is also in a poor state due to years of neglect.

During a familiarisation tour of TOR, Sentuo Oil Refinery Limited, and Tropical Cable and Conductor Limited in Tema, Mr Krapah revealed that negotiations with a new investor are already underway to bring the ailing refinery back to life.

“TOR would work again under our watch. We have plans still, and I know that there are some discussions ongoing. That strategic investment should not be an event; there is work that we need to do which would culminate into this strategic investment.”

Disagreement between management, the board, and staff is another bane of the firm. Addressing that challenge, Mr Krapah urged TOR management and its staff to resolve their long-standing rift and work together to revamp the firm.

“I know that the different bodies in TOR always have some form of disagreement or the other. I hope that this time we can get everybody onboard, management, the board, the unions so that we can save a lot of time and move forward with revamping TOR.”

The Managing Director of TOR, Kofi Tagoe Mocumbi, believes successful negotiations with a new investor will revive the company’s fortunes, with the Crude Dissolution Unit (CDU) coming back to life within three months.

“I see TOR in the next three months. In the next three months, TOR is going to get lit up. We’re going to start our plants. We’re going to get the CDU started and we’re going to get functional.

“In the next three years, which will be a systematic process that will start from now with the CDU and a year from now we’ll have the RCC working and the PRF also working.

“By three years, TOR will be running at 60,000 per stream day and we’ll be looking toward expanding the plant into a 100,000 stream day.”

Accompanied by officials of the National Petroleum Authority, the minister also visited the Chinese-owned Sentuo Oil Refinery Limited in Kpone to familiarise himself with the company’s operations.

During a joint meeting with both Sentuo Refinery and TOR management, the minister called for stronger collaboration.

“I believe a stronger partnership between TOR and Sentuo while TOR prepares itself should not be ignored. There should be more collaboration between the two of you instead of competition.”

The minister also visited Tropical Cables and Conductor Limited. At Tropical Cables Limited, he assessed production opportunities and challenges.

The MD of the company, Dominik Klotzbach, expressed concerns over unfair competition and urged government intervention.

“We need to be protected against sub-standard imports, subsidised imports and we need to have access to the same resources as our competitor in other countries.

“If we have a level playing field, then we can also compete with the same quality at the same cost in the same market.”

The Minister of State at the Energy Ministry, Herbert Krapah, assured that the government is committed to addressing concerns about unfair competition from imports.

“Competition from imports is one of the issues they have. They have capacity. I believe that working with GRIDCo, ECG, and the rest of the power sector players, we should be able to enhance the uptake of their capacity beyond what we’re seeing currently.”

Herbert Krapah hopes the visit will send the right signal to sector players as he takes charge of the energy ministry.