Analyst Calls For Layoffs At Tema Oil Refinery As Government Struggles To Operationalise Facility

• The director of the Centre for Environmental Management and Sustainable Energy has called for layoffs at the Tema Oil Refinery
• The centre said the layoffs will lead to savings and contribute to making the refinery more sustainable
• The General Transport, Petroleum, and Chemical Workers Union responded and downplayed the call for layoffs

Benjamin Nsiah, the director of the Centre for Environmental Management and Sustainable Energy, has called for some layoffs at the troubled Tema Oil Refinery.

Nsiah told YEN.com.gh that this could contribute to reviving and making the refinery more sustainable.

“As a company that has not refined products since 2018 and keeps these employees, they become a burden.”

“It will help cut down costs and help them plough back some profits and help with internally regenerated funds,” he said.

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Nsiah also expressed concerns that some workers have created barriers to foreign investors supporting TOR.

However, the General Transport, Petroleum, and Chemical Workers Union downplayed the call for layoffs.

Bernard Owusu, the union's National Chairman, told YEN.com.gh that it was too early for such discussions.

He believes the government needs to show more commitment to getting investors.

“All that the government needs is for government to open its doors for government to invest in TOR. If anybody tells you that we can’t have any investors for TOR, it is a blunt lie.”

Owusu also suggested that the new $2 billion Sentuo Oil Refinery Limited was problematic because of the struggles of TOR.

The new refinery has the backing of the Chinese government and was conceived from the Chinese government’s Belt and Road Development Strategy for the oil and gas industry in China and Africa.

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The new refinery could refine five million barrels of oil annually.

“The issue is we allowing our own to get destroyed… government should take a critical look at TOR and stop the rhetoric.”

The General Transport, Petroleum, and Chemical Workers Union had previously called for the refinery board to be dissolved.

Plan to lease TOR

The government plans to lease the refinery to Torentco Asset Management Group for $22 million over six years.

YEN.com.gh reported that civil society groups and experts in the downstream petroleum sector have also called on the government to halt the lease of the refinery.

For instance, the Chamber of Oil and Petroleum Consumers said Torentco Asset Management lacks experience running a refinery.

However, some workers at the refinery support the deal and have backed the government's moves. Torentco planned to refine up to eight million barrels of oil annually and pay $1 million annually to the state as rent under the deal.

Source: YEN.com.gh