Tema Oil Refinery's (TOR) Corporate Affairs Officer and National Communications Team Member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Godwin Mahama, has announced that the refinery will resume the refining of crude oil by the end of October 2025.
This is after nearly eight years of inactivity.
Speaking to the media during an interview on October 13, Mr. Mahama divulged that for between six and eight years, TOR had been effectively dormant, with its core function of refining crude oil coming to a standstill.
According to him, the new management of TOR has prioritized taking the refinery back to its core mandate. There is an ongoing full Turnaround Maintenance Project, which is now 98% complete.
"For some 6 to 8 years the refinery has been shut down it has not been running, the core business of refinery crude was not available, and for so long we were doing services because of the huge farm tanks TOR has for storing fuel so in the absence of its main mandate they rented the tank farms for BDCs which was used to bring finished products into the country, that is what has kept TOR up to now.".
The new management has made it a priority that the company gets back to its main core mandate by the end of this month, October. TOR will restart refining Crude in this country, we have started what is called the turn-around maintenance to put all the equipment in condition," he said on Yɛn Nsempa Morning Show on Onua FM.
He also added that Management "formed a committee to oversee the turnaround maintenance and hired temporary workers to supplement the process. They have been working around the clock for the past two to three months, and we have captured about 98% of the maintenance activities."
He revealed that a staff durbar last week reaffirmed that the turnaround maintenance committee will hand over the plant to the production unit by this Friday. As soon as the production team completes its final inspection, TOR will be ready to commence work.
"Before the third week of this month, the first crude will be in the country and refining will commence," Mr. Mahama assured.
Mr. Mahama credited TOR's revitalization drive to the leadership of Managing Director Edmund Combat and the support of President John Mahama, whose government, he said, has been keen on reviving the refinery.
"President Mahama has always said TOR must work again because when TOR works, it creates employment and our foreign exchange position is strong," he emphasized.
He further explained that reviving local refining will significantly reduce Ghana’s dependence on imported petroleum products.
“Currently, almost all our finished products are imported, but if TOR can meet about 60% of the local market demand, we’ll save foreign currency, strengthen the cedi, and complement the government’s economic stabilization efforts, including those by the Finance Ministry and GOLDBOD,” he added.