Page 12 - DMEA Week 11 2023

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Presidential hopeful

states TOR revival goal

GHANA DR Kwabena Duffor, presidential candidate for of industry experts – with the aim of ensuring a
the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of steady supply for the plant.
Ghana, has said that he will prioritise the res- The 45,000 barrel per day (bpd) facility had
toration of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to full been expected to resume full operations by the
capacity if elected. end of February following extensive repair work.
Duffor, a former finance minister and gover- It has been plagued by issues since an explosion
nor of the Bank of Ghana running in the coun- at its distillation unit in early 2017 and was closed
try’s 2024 general election, made the comments completely between July 2020 and January 2021.
while speaking to party delegates during a cam- Outages were experienced at the crude distil-
paign tour in the Accra region last week. He lation and fluid catalytic cracking units in Janu-
said he would commit to running the refinery ary 2021, while only one of the CDU’s furnaces
“efficiently and sustainably” in order to provide is currently operational, giving the 56-year-old
affordable fuel for the country. facility an effective throughput capacity of
“I understand the importance of TOR to the 30,000 bpd.
Ghanaian economy, and if given the opportu- Reports in May 2021 had also suggested that
nity to lead, I will work tirelessly to bring it back the refinery had depleted all its feedstock, with
to full operation. The high cost of petroleum operations halted for maintenance and repair
products is a significant burden on the average works to begin. In mid-2022, Minister for Public
Ghanaian, and we must do everything we can to Enterprises Joshua Cudjoe said the government
make fuel prices more affordable,” he said. was seeking strategic partners willing to provide
He explained that his plan to revive the refin- the capital required to rehabilitate TOR, which
ery includes a review of the refinery’s operation requires extensive repair work, a goal which Duf-
procedures and general infrastructure. He out- for seems to be continuing. His pledge to revive
lined that exploration for alternative sources of refinery has painted it as an important part of
crude oil would take place – under the guidance improving the country as a whole.™

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