Tema Oil Refinery must work again - Titus-Glover speaks amidst fuel price increases

Former Member of Parliament for Tema East, Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover, has called for the revival of the defunct Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).

According to him, some key equipment needed to revamp the refinery had been fixed with the crude distillation unit working.

Speaking on TV3's New Day show on Wednesday, November 9, Mr Titus- Glover said, “TOR must work again. The president's first address, he touched on how we can source some cheap refined petroleum products, that is fine in the interim but I want to look at the situation where the refinery can work again because as we speak, the fence that went bad some few months ago has been refurbished and the crude distillation unit is working.”

His comment comes on the back of the rising prices of petroleum products at various pumps in the country.

Tema Oil Refinery has not been operational since June 2018 due to a lack of crude oil which serves as a raw material for the refinery.

Aside from the inadequate crude oil in the country's only oil refinery, TOR is faced with other challenges like broken equipment, and piled debt, among others.

It would be recalled that the management of TOR in April this year sought approval from the Energy Ministry to engage the private sector players to revamp the oil refinery.

The green light was given on May 2, 2022.

In June this year, the Deputy Energy Minister, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, said he was optimistic the oil refinery will soon commence operations.

Speaking on CitiTV's Big Issue programme and monitored by GhanaWeb, Andrew Egyapa Mercer said, “As it is, I do not expect it to go beyond the year’s end because there is some equipment they need to repair to enable them to get back quickly and start refining.”

Touching on the settling of debts including utility bills, the Deputy Energy Minister said private sector partners of the refinery will help clear the debts.

“Some refinancing has to be done, and some debt has to remain on the books of TOR, which means whoever is parenting TOR takes that obligation,” he said.

ESA/FNOQ