TOR Lease Agreement: TUC Union Discloses American Company With A Better Offer Was Sidelined For Torentco

• The fight to stop the government from handing over the Tema Oil Refinery to a private firm, Torentco, is gaining ground
• The influential General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers' Union of Trade Union Congress has joined the fray
• It's national chairman Bernard Owusu has disclosed to YEN.com.gh that an American oil firm with a better offer was sidelined for Torentco, saying that raises more suspicion about the current proposal

Resistance against a proposal to lease Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to Torentco Asset Management is thickening.

The General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers’ Union of Trade Union Congress (TUC) has joined the calls for the proposal, which is at an early stage, to be revoked because of a lack of demonstrable capacity.

Apart from a lack of capacity, the workers' union has also disclosed to YEN.com.gh in an exclusive interview that a US oil company that was offering a more viable deal was sidelined for Torentco, a company without experience and founded in January 2023.

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Consider better offers on the table

National chairman of the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers’ Union, Bernard Owusu, told YEN.com.gh that while interrogating the shroud of secrecy about the Torentco deal, the Union came across a proposal from US firm, Falcon American Oil.

"Falcon American Oil has the desire to invest about $ 200 million in the short, medium to long term. This was presented last Friday in the MD’s conference room with the whole of Management and other staff present," Owusu said.

According to a report by IMANI, a policy think tank, Torentco is offering $22 million for capital investment to fix TOR's issues, an offer the report describes as grossly inadequate.

IMANI explained, for instance, that the Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) unit, which is considered essential to bringing TOR to profitability, will cost in excess of $230 million to upgrade.

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According to Bernard Owusu, the American oil firm is willing to start immediately if given the nod and has given the assurance that by December 2023 RFCC would be running.

"They have the plan to build a Sulphur Recovery Unit and also expand the CDU capacity to 80,000bpsd when an off-taker is obtained. The want to further in the long term build a petrol chemical plant, he added.

Torentco red flags cannot be ignored

Owusu told YEN.com.gh said there is a need for the proposal to be re-assessed.

"We are of the view the red flags raised cannot be ignored. We have subsequently written to the various government stakeholders who have to give approval to re-assess the proposed deal since it is not the solution to TOR’s challenges," he stressed.

He said all proposals must be given a fair hearing and objective analysis without undue advantage to any party.

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COPEC-GH mounts fierce resistance against "shady" deal

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh has reported in a related story that a petroleum industry think tank COPEC-GH has mounted fierce resistance against the proposal to lease the Tema Oil Refinery to Torentco.

COPEC-GH executive director Duncan Amoah told YEN.com.gh that Torentco does not have the demonstrable capacity to manage the multimillion-dollar state refinery.

He put forth many arguments during an exclusive interview with YEN.com.gh to emphasise that the deal does not make sense and reeks of corruption.

Pressure mounts on Akufo-Addo to stop deal

Also, YEN.com.gh reported that civil society and experts in the downstream petroleum sector are calling on Nana Akufo-Addo to stop a deal being cooked to lease TOR to Torentco.

They say the move to hand over assets of the strategic state refinery to Torentco Asset Management would fail because the company does not have the technical capacity.

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Under the agreement, Torentco will have the authority to refine up to 8 million barrels of oil per year and pay $1 million annually to the state as rent.

Source: YEN.com.gh