Over $2.5 million worth of condensate has gone missing from TOR – Energy Minister
The Minister of Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has revealed that over $2.5 million worth of condensate oil from Ghana Gas has gone missing at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
He made this comment following an appeal by workers of TOR to the government to revive the refinery.
According to Dr Opoku Prempeh, this was part of a deal his ministry secured for the refinery in the premix fuel sector.
“I gave TOR a new business opportunity in the premix fuel market that all the condensate from Ghana Gas should be used for blending premix fuel. The last time I heard, over 2.5 million dollars worth of condensate had gone missing from TOR. If we all want TOR working, and we don’t want another ECG in TOR, [we should do the right thing else] it will break the back of government”.
The minister further stated that the company is also saddled with debt which they are struggling to settle after a committee that worked for 8 months to reconcile their losses had not made any progress.
“TOR has over $500 million worth of debt sitting on its books and go and look at how the debt is accumulated– people bring their crude to refine and then they record crude losses,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, workers have announced their intention to embark on a series of actions to back the distress call urging the revamp of TOR.
At a press conference held at the forecourt of TOR, the National Chairman of the General Transport Petroleum Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU), Mr. Bernard Owusu, said the industrial actions would precede the May Day celebrations.
Mr. Owusu hinted that workers plan to picket on the premises of the Ministry of Energy and other strategic locations as several calls and meetings with management and government officials yielded no results.
However, Dr. Opoku Prempeh said the government is doing all it can to revive the company.
“The government, I can tell you, is doing so much work to bring TOR to work. Getting it right is a difficult proposition we are working on. And we will work diligently to get Ghanaians what is good,” the minister added.