An Energy Think-tank, the Institute for Energy Policies and Research (INSTEPR) has expressed disquiet about Tema Oil Refinery’s (TOR) failure to resume processing of crude oil, despite a new management and Board in place.

The current Managing Director, Jerry K. Hinson, and the board of directors were appointed on March 2, 2022, however, eight months down the line, the refinery is yet to resume operations.

“The question on the minds of most Ghanaians is, why is Tema Oil Refinery not working? In recent months there has been over 150% increase in prices of Petroleum products. This has brought immense hardship on the average Ghanaian through the increase in the prices of goods and transport,” the Energy think-tank said in a Press Statement.

The Institute for Energy Policies and Research (INSTEPR) says the situation is becoming worrying to industry experts as the “majority shareholder of the refinery[government] has been quiet on any plans to get the refinery working to cushion the suffering of Ghanaians.”

The last time the TOR refined crude oil was in April 2021, just before the appointment of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) on June 15, 2021, which was later replaced by a permanent MD and board.

But even before the new current MD and board took office, the Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, at the inauguration of the IMC, tasked it to, among other things, receive and assess viable partnerships towards reviving TOR.

Although the three-member IMC was at TOR for nine months, INSTEPR said no progress was recorded during the period, as there was neither procurement nor refining of crude.

Way forward

Meanwhile, INSTEPR has outlined a number of measures to solve the problems at Tema Oil Refinery.

They included fixing TOR’s Crude Oil Distillation Unit (CDU), which is currently out of service, to increase its capacity from the 23,000 bpsd to 45,000 bpsd, along with its Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC), which has also been down for some time now, as well as security measures to stop the theft of products.

It also believes that hydrotreating catalysts and technologies should be installed for all crude oil fractions, enabling the refinery to meet 50 ppm or lower specification, while a gas pipeline (less than 1KM) to power the refinery, should be constructed so as to stop the refinery from using expensive crude oil for power.

The Institute however has hinted at plans to partner with other civil society organizations and industry experts to organize a forum to engage government to find a lasting solution to the TOR problem.

“We cannot allow a national asset like TOR to collapse and turned into a tank farm, as proposed by others in the past,” INSTEPR said.