TOR-Torentco Agreement: Minority Demands Government Suspends Deal To Lease Refinery To Private Firm

• The Minority in Parliament has called for the deal to lease out the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to be halted
• The Minority believes that the government must hold more stakeholder engagements on the matter
• A spokesperson of the Minority, John Jinapor, said the planned leasing will not help revive the refinery

The Minority in Parliament has demanded that the government suspends plans to lease the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to a private firm.

A spokesperson of the Minority, John Jinapor, said further stakeholder engagements were needed on the matter.

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

Jinapor told the press that the deal in its current state is not in Ghana’s interests.

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“We believe that the contract is inimical. That contract will not inure to the benefit of Ghanaians. That contract will not benefit the ordinary Ghanaian and that contract does not meet value for money criteria.

“We are therefore calling on the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia-led government to put a halt to this lease agreement, engage further with stakeholders and ensure that we find a long-lasting solution to the problems confronting TOR,” he stated.

Jinapor stressed that the government’s current plans will not help revive the refinery that has been underutilised for many years.

“It thus appears that they are playing with the refinery. It thus appears that there is no seriousness being shown when it comes to the revitalisation of the refinery," he said.

Pressure mounting to halt the deal

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.

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For instance, the Chamber of Oil and Petroleum Consumers said Torentco Asset Management does not have experience in running a refinery.

But workers at the refinery are in support of the deal and have backed the moves by the government.

Torentco is expected to refine up to 8 million barrels of oil per year and pay $1 million annually to the state as rent under the deal.

Company with better offer ignored

The influential General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers' Union claimed an American company had a better offer than Torentco but was sidelined.

The American company in question is called Falcon American Oil.

The union thus called for the deal to be reassessed because of the red flags it said it had noted.

Source: YEN.com.gh