The Chief Executive Officer of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Mr Isaac Osei, has allayed fears of a possible fuel shortage following an explosion at the facility.

A Principal Research Analyst at the Institute for Energy Security (IES), Richmond Rockson, had suggested that the explosion of the furnace at the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) of TOR was a threat to fuel security.

The new furnace was commissioned in mid-December 2016 and coincided with TOR’s receipt of its first indigenous crude oil from the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) field. It has been supportive of production until it exploded internally at 10:40am on Thursday.

Although the cause of explosion is not immediately known, IES says it is of the view that “the non-adherence to safety protocol and standard operating procedures, lack of adequate supervision, inexperience operating and production management personnel and complacency are many of the factors that could result in such an incident”.

The IES has, thus, called on the management of TOR, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the Ministry of Energy, and the government, as a matter of urgency, to launch an investigation into the incident to unravel the cause of the blow-up, and take steps to restore capacity while preserving the remaining production capacity.

“Anything short of these could jeopardise the country’s fuel security, threaten jobs, push back the gains made so far by TOR, turn the refinery to a storage terminal again, and impact negativity on the country’s socio-economic growth,” IES said.

However, Mr Osei has indicated that investigations are still underway and a fuel shortage is not likely.

Asked by Jonas Ofori-Yeboah on 12 Live on Class91.3FM on Friday, 27 January if there was enough fuel for the country, Mr Osei answered in the affirmative, adding that “there is enough oil” to meet the needs of the country.