Tema Oil Refinery To Start Production In 3 Months, New MD Makes Pledge

• The new Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery has said his outfit will resume refining crude in the next three months
• The Tema Oil Refinery can refine 45,000 barrels daily, with a potential to refine 100,000 barrels per stream daily
• The Tema Oil Refinery has been nonfunctional for several years, and attempts by the government to revive it have failed

Macumba Tagoe, the new Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery, said his outfit will resume refining crude in the next three months.

He said work was ongoing to get the Crude Distillation Unit to start functioning. The Tema Oil Refinery can refine 45,000 barrels daily.

Herbert Krapa, Minister of State to the Ministry of Energy, toured the facility on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.

During the tour, The Chronicle reported that Tagoe said the Residual Cataractic Cracker would also start working within a year.

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He expects the refinery's crude processing capacity to rise daily from 45,000 barrels per stream to 100,000 barrels per stream.

The Tema Oil Refinery has been nonfunctional for several years, and attempts by the government to revive it have failed, given the lack of transparency in the selection process of a strategic partner.

The Tema Oil Refinery could face competition from the new $2 billion Sentuo Oil Refinery Limited, which has drawn criticism.

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

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

In response, Bernard Owusu of the General Transport, Petroleum, and Chemical Workers' Union told YEN.com.gh that the director needed to develop a tangible plan.

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Petroleum workers' union reacts to pledge for Tema Oil Refinery to resume work: “I have my doubts”

"He has to come again and give us the tangibles and give us the timelines as to what they have been able to achieve within the two-month period since he was appointed as the MD of the refinery."

Earlier plan to lease TOR

YEN.com.gh has reported that the government had plans to lease the refinery to Torentco Asset Management Group for $22 million over six years.

However, some refinery workers supported the deal and the government's moves.

Under the deal, Torentco planned to refine up to 8 million barrels of oil annually and pay the state $1 million annually as rent.

Source: YEN.com.gh