TOR still imports gas oil

- 15% to supplement local production

The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) continues to import 15% of gas oil for the local market from Nigeria. This is to beef up local production.

The refinery's deputy managing director in charge of operations, Mr. Robert Forson, made this known at Tema.

According to him, Ghana used to import gas oil, liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and gas oil but with the construction of the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) the country stopped the importation of gas oil and LPG.

However, we continue to import 15% of the total gas oil required to supplement local production.

Our leaded petrol, the deputy director said is still being produced by TOR and assured that 2004 has been targeted as an end to its production. Plans are far advanced for this to take place before then.

When asked on preparations being made to avoid flooding of the yard, especially the pump house anytime it rains, Mr. Robert said that studies have gone on to see how best diversions could be effected to the existing drainage system.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) Separator, he said is being worked on to absorb and function properly.

Further inquiries have it that because TOR has not got enough steam, two main plants, Distillation Unit and the Reformer Unit have been shutdown during the tie-in into the ?200 million RFCC plant.

This is to allow enough steam to operate the new RFCC, which is not operating at full capacity.

Petrol, kerosene, LPG and naphtha are processed through this system of distillation before the naphtha finally goes through the reformer to produce gas oil.

Since these two plants have been shut down, the TOR depends solely on what comes out from the residue being recycled at the RFCC to obtain gas oil.

When the TOR, then Ghana Italian Petrol (GHAIP) was installed about 40 years ago, it was equipped with five steam boilers but now has only two. The three have been declared as scrap