Revive TOR to address exchange rate challenges affecting OMCs – Dr Oppong

The Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), Dr. Riverson Oppong has called for the establishment of an effective local refinery to support the oil and gas sector.

Dr. Oppong stressed the need for government to revive the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to create jobs and aid in the processing of crude.

According to him, this will help address some foreign exchange challenges affecting operators in the sector.

Speaking in an interview, Dr. Oppong bemoaned the rate at which companies struggle with the depreciation of the cedi against the dollar.

“When we discovered gas, we were quick to establish the Atuabo Gas but why not for crude oil. I believe it’s time we have local refineries working. This will probably help with the FX challenges we are currently facing as an association”.

“Sentuo has been on and off and I think TOR should be working. We are all in this country so I expect TOR to be back. In one of the conferences I presented the economics on the benefit of having TOR. I don’t know why it is still not working. We had promises upon promises but here we are nothing has been done”, he complained.

He disputed claims that OMCs do not promptly lower prices when the factors point to reduction in prices.

He further revealed that the association is working to deal with complains of service quality issues that have come up in recent times from some consumers.

“There is always a reason, why the OMCs delay in reviewing prices at the pumps, and that has nothing to do with the arguments that they want to shortchange consumers”, he defended.

“Looking at the progress that we have made when it comes to developing the sector, we should not be having these kinds of challenges. They are committed to doing everything to ensure that help restore confidence in the industry when it comes quality of products sold”.