The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) is hoping to restore the burnt furnace at the plant, to increase its production to full capacity, by the end of this year – 2018.

This is to improve the profitability of the oil refinery to be competitive in the industry.

The Managing Director of TOR, Isaac Osei disclosed this plan to Citi Business News following concerns of under production at the facility.

Currently, TOR produces at half capacity of about 25,000 barrels of oil per day due to the faulty equipment.

TOR has been faced with series of operational challenges over the years which compelled it to suspend operations early this year.

“The capacity that we have I think we are using all of it which is about 25,000 barrels of oil per day; by the end of the year, we hope we would have restored the furnace that had exploded in January 2017. Once we restore that we will be back to 45,000 barrels of oil per day; once we get to that level, then it will provide us with the platform to get unto the 60,000 barrels of oil per day which could be described as the profitable range.”

Mr. Osei further stated plans to improve the refinery capacity to turnaround the fortunes of the refinery soon.

“Aside this, we are also negotiating for a 100,000 barrel per day capacity refinery,” he said.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta last year announced moves to attract investors to revamp the operations of TOR.

At the time, he was hopeful that the refinery would be able to resume its full production capacity by the March 2018 to improve the supply of refined petroleum products.

Early this year, the Institute of Energy Security (IES) urged the government to intervene and get the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) back to work.

The IES argued that this will largely be resolved with strengthening of the leadership of the facility.

Meanwhile, the Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko has also outlined an ambitious plan to establish a new refinery within the next four years.

The facility which is in line with the government’s energy hub agenda, is estimated to cost 4 billion dollars.