Page 17 - DMEA Week 28 2022

DMEA NEWS IN BRIEF DMEA

In February, BP and Shell announced they in southern Tehran instead of using drinking turn to respond to issues raised in the 2019
would be halting operations indefinitely at water.” Auditor-General’s Report concerning the
Sapref €“ Southern Africa’s biggest crude oil Therefore, in the near future, a NPA.
refinery, which can process some 180,000 fundamental step will be taken in the According to the report, the auditors
barrels a day and accounts for 35% of direction of achieving sustainability by were unable to confirm the existence and
SA’s refining capacity. By March, Mineral utilizing the southern Tehran water treatment completeness of the account receivable
Resources and Energy Minister Gwede plan for industrial water, Tehrani added. balances and that for instance, third party
Mantashe confirmed that government, Referring to the significant measures taken confirmation received from TOR indicated
through the Central Energy Fund, was to improve the refinery’s cathodic protection that its balance was GH¢6,884,099.23
considering acquiring Sapref in a bid to save system and move in the direction of becoming receivable from NPA, however, NPA
it. a petro-refinery, the operations manager of presented a balance of GH¢4,648,450.75
Meanwhile Astron Energy’s Cape Town Tehran Oil Refining Company stated: “We do receivables from TOR.
facility, which had a 100 000 barrel-a-day not have a plan to increase the capacity of the It noted that there was an irreconcilable
capacity, shut its doors in 2020 after a units, our effort is to increase the quality of difference between the outstanding balances
devastating explosion that cost two lives. the products by using the maximum available in the books of NPA and TOR as was verified
Similarly, Engen’s Durban refinery, which had capacity of the company. Our most important from the balances the two entities posted as of
a capacity of 120 000 barrels a day, has also action in this regard has been the construction 31 December 2017.
remained closed since an explosion in late and launch of the CCR project with the aim of It said receivables Balances were material
2020. improving the quality of our gasoline output.” to the financial statements and so can affect
NEWS24 “We have also started primary studies on the economic decisions of users taken on the
a project for converting heavy products into basis of the financial statements.
Tehran Oil Refinery to chemical and petrochemical products; With that proper reconciliations were made
The Report urged the Authority to ensure
the launch of this project, while increasing
be upgraded into petro- the refinery’s octane output, the benzene between NPA and TOR and other entities
making up the receivables, and confirmation
production will decrease,” he said.
refinery refinery owned by the National Iranian of such balances promptly made available to
Tehran Oil Refinery is a non-integrated
the Auditors.
Manager of operations at Tehran Oil Refining Oil Refining and Distribution Company Dr Abdul-Hamid said: “As far as they
Company has announced the company’s (NIORDC) located in southern Tehran. The are concerned, we needed to offset what
plan for upgrading the refinery into a petro- refinery, which started operations in 1969, has Government owed them with what they
refinery in order to expand its products a processing capacity of 250,000 barrels per owe us but our response as per this letter
basket, Shana reported. day. that we have written to the Public Accounts
Mostafa Tehrani stated that Tehran Oil TEHRAN TIMES Committee, our answer to that is that we are
Refining Company has taken fundamental not the ones responsible for paying under
measures to maintain, improve and increase Tema refinery owes NPA recoveries.”
the quality of its products. “Payment of under recoveries is the
Changing the water supply source of the GH¢4.6mn €“ NPA CEO responsibility of the Ministry of Finance, and
refinery, upgrading the refinery’s power grid, so, there is no way they can ask us to offset
and upgrading the cathodic protection system Dr Mustapha Hamid, CEO of the National what Government owes them with what they
of the refinery are among the measures taken Petroleum Authority (NPA), has informed owe us.
in the movement towards becoming a petro- the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of “As far as we are concerned our books
refinery, according to the official. Parliament that the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) between 2014 to 2017 indicate that they owed
Mentioning the company’s new project to owes the Authority GH¢4.6 million. us GH¢4,648,450.75,” he added.
cut dependence on the Thran city’s drinking The CEO made the disclosure on Friday at He reiterated that TOR had subsequently
water supply, the official said: “This company the PAC’s sitting in Accra, when he took his confirmed that they owed the Authority
was dependent on the drinking water turn to respond to issues raised in the 2019 GH¢4,648,450.75.
supply of the city of Tehran for its operation, Auditor-General’s Report concerning the Dr Abdul-Hamid explained to the
however, considering the water crisis in the NPA. Committee that the GH¢6,884,099.23, which
capital, we decided to define a project to use The CEO made the disclosure on Friday at TOR initially claimed had owed them by the
the water supplied from the treatment plant the PAC’s sitting in Accra, when he took his Authority, was what the Government owed

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