Page 13 - DMEA Week 19 2022

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Ghana receiving proposals from

potential investors in Tema refinery

AFRICA GHANA’S Minister of Public Enterprises Joseph industry association known as the Chamber of
Cudjoe has said that the government is starting Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC), hailed
to receive proposals from potential strategic President Nana Akufo-Addo’s announcement
investors in Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). of plans for the rehabilitation of TOR and urged
In an interview with Ghana News Agency Accra to specify when the project might be com-
(GNA) published on May 10, Cudjoe stated that pleted. “We are happy that he’s now indicating
a number of companies had submitted offers to that there are plans to fix it. Timelines will need
the Ministry of Energy. to be given so the people can at least hold author-
He did not name any of these potential part- ities accountable for this,” Amoah told Citi Busi-
ners but said they were willing to provide TOR ness News.
with the technologies and funds it needed to
overhaul its physical plant and increase utilisa- Crude requirement
tion levels. This week, workers at TOR said that Accra
Accra intends to choose one of these firms should make it a requirement that crude from
to help restructure the oil-processing plant, he the country’s offshore Jubilee oilfield should be
indicated. processed at the facility.
“At the moment, I know the Ministry of TOR workers argued the refinery is capable
Energy is receiving proposals from potential of turning out enough petroleum products to
strategic investors for the restructuring,” Cudjoe meet 60% of local demand. They also assert that
told GNA. “And so we are looking at that window producing fuels domestically would help signif-
where these strategic investors will bring in the icantly reduce the amount of money paid to the
necessary funds, the necessary technical tech- petroleum distribution companies (PDCs) that
nologies and so on for it to operate as expected ... import refined fuels into Ghana.
So that is the restructuring plan.” Bright Adongo, chairman of the Senior Staff
Ghana’s government is determined to pro- Union of TOR, told the Ghanaian Times that
tect and maintain TOR’s assets even though the capital-intensive petroleum product importa-
plant is not operating at its full design capacity of tion leads to high fuel prices at the pump. Rais-
45,000 barrels per day (bpd), he added. Officials ing capacity utilisation at TOR would help bring
in Accra do not see expenditures for such pur- prices down while also generating additional
poses as wasteful, he commented. revenues for state coffers, he said.
“When you have a building, dilapidated, sit- Adongo also pointed out that TOR had
ting there and people are stealing furniture, glass started refining oil even before Ghana discov-
louvres, will you put a security man [there] and ered its own reserves. As such, he said, there is
pay him even though the building is not bringing no reason why the plant should be idle now that
you rents? Will you do that? If you will do that, the country has commercial crude resources.
then you use the same to measure what is hap- He also urged the Ghanaian public to demand
pening at the Tema Oil Refinery,” he remarked. that the government recapitalise the facility so
Cudjoe was speaking shortly after Dun- that it could fulfil its mandate of producing qual-
can Amoah, the executive secretary of a local ity petroleum products. ™

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