Tema refinery shuts due to oil shortage

Ghana's 45,000 barrel-per-day Tema refinery has shut down due to a lack of crude oil supplies, the managing director of the plant said on Tuesday.

"We ran out of crude and had to shut down," said Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Managing Director Kwame Ampofo. "This happened because a supplier we relied on very much disappointed us and could not deliver as expected."

The refinery has had operations problems due to financial woes that have made it difficult to buy crude cargoes, and was shuttered for much of 2009.

Ampofo said the plant was most recently idled 10 days ago, and added he could not give a restart date.

Ghana's government stepped in to ease TOR's debt burden last month by paying its main creditor, Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB.GH), some $316 million.