Tema, Sept. 30, GNA - The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) would, by the end of next week, take delivery of the first consignment of 1.5 million barrels of crude oil from Nigeria.

Dr Kwame Ampofo, Acting Managing Director of the company, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency, in an interview, in Tema, said SCANOIL International, would be lifting the oil. Dr Ampofo said TOR had identified the problems that disrupted fuel distribution last weekend, and that frantic efforts were being made to solve them in order to ensure the regular supply of fuel throughout the country.

On the issue of some Oil Marketing Companies' (OMCs) indebtedness to TOR, he said they had up to the end of the year to settle the debts.

Dr Ampofo said the company would institute legal action against recalcitrant OMCs after the deadline.

He said out of the total amount of GHC380 million owed by the 57 OMCs as at June this year, TOR had, within three months, recovered more than GHC300 million.

He said about 20 OMCs who owed TOR, had had their supplies cut off, stressing that, not until they had taken steps towards making payment, TOR would not supply them with oil.

On his vision for TOR, Dr Ampofo who took office about three months ago, said he would endeavour to educate the public to enable them to "Know What TOR Does, and What it Does Not Do."

"I do not want to please anybody in the short term, but to please the entire economy in the long run," he remarked.

He explained that TOR was licensed by the National Petroleum Authority to import crude oil and refine it, and not to go in for finished products.