Mahama: TOR staff took 20% pay cut to revive refinery

The staff of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) voluntarily imposed a 20% pay cut on themselves as part of sacrifices to bring the country’s only refinery back on track, President John Mahama has revealed.

Announcing the resumption of refinery operations at TOR, President John Mahama told Parliament on Thursday February 25, while delivering his State of the Nation address, that: “TOR, I’m pleased to announce is operational, and is poised to resume its strategic role in petroleum production in Ghana.

“Mr Speaker, I salute the acting MD and the staff of the refinery for their hard work and the sacrifice they have made to bring the refinery back on stream.

“Mr Speaker – and this is very interesting – the staff of TOR voluntarily took an unprecedented 20% pay cut as their contribution for putting TOR back on its feet. …I salute you…well done,” Mr Mahama applauded.

TOR resumed operations about a month ago after it was shut down for about a year following engineering and financial problems. The refinery owes about $650 million. It has started refining about a million barrels of crude this month.