Plans are far afoot for the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to secure a strategic partner within the next 90 days to commence full operations.
To ensure that the process is successful and in the best interest of the country, the Minister of State for the Ministry of Energy, Herbert Krapa, has indicated that government through the Ministry and all its agencies will guide and protect the process.
Mr Krapa was reacting to the announcement by the Managing Director of the TOR, Kofi Tagoe Mocumbi, that the refinery would complete the process and announce a strategic investor within the next three months during a tour of the refinery in Tema on Tuesday.
This is Mr Krapa’s first working visit to a sector agency since he assumed office. He also visited Sentuo Refinery and Tropical Cable and Conductors Limited both in Tema.
During the briefing, Mr Mocumbi, assured the Minister and the media that TOR had commenced the process to select a strategic partner to help revamp and also expand its operations. Mr Mocumbi also announced the three-month timeline for the strategic partner.
Mr Krapa indicated that government is committed to provide the refinery with “capital, technology and efficiency” to revamp and execute its core mandate, generate revenue for the state and secure employment for its staff.
He indicated that while the process for securing a strategic investor progresses, there is the need for immediate intervention to prepare the refinery, which includes operationalizing some of the departments such as the laboratory and others.
“There is no gain saying that TOR needs all our support, attention, and we all need to put our hands on deck, and it is for these reasons that I chose TOR to be my first official visit to the institutions that work under the Ministry”, he added.
Mr Krapa noted that TOR is a strategic asset that has significant potential in the downstream sector and it is disturbing that it has not operated for some time now.
“I don’t think it is late in the day. I have had conversations with the President [Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo]. He doesn’t believe it is late in the day and I am running on the back of his energy and that is the reason I chose TOR as the first”, he said adding that he was intimately versed with the issues that TOR had.
Mr Krapa was of the strong conviction that finding a strategic investor is the objective on the horizon and expressed the hope that all the stakeholders especially the board, management and the union would form a united front to save time and make progress in revamping the TOR.
He said TOR required urgent attention and that securing a strategic investor should be an event but prior to that, the work that must be done should be executed to culminate in smooth entry of the investor.
These works, he explained, to include the terminal, pipelines, laboratories, storage, which should be made to work efficiently and fully to create revenue which he described as low hanging fruits for the refinery.
Regarding the usage of TOR facilities for storing Sentuo Refinery products, Mr Krapa said the two companies are not competitors because both the local and international markets were inexhaustible for them and that he considered them working to complement each other.
He added that with TOR’s current position, it should not entertain any fear from Sentuo, but rather embrace the idea of renting its facilities to Sentuo while it worked to revamp its operations fully.
Mr Krapa together with his entourage visited Sentuo Refinery. He was accompanied by the Chief Director of the Ministry Wilhelmina Asamoah, the Deputy Chief Executive Officers of the National Petroleum Authority Ghana, Perry Curtis Kwabla Okudzeto and Linda Asante and the various Directors and Heads of Department from the Ministry.
At Sentuo Refinery, Mr Krapa, assured the Management that government through polices and programme continues to work to engender sanity and harmony for the local industry players to expand their investment.
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