The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) is expected to come on stream to greatly improve the supply of fuel on the market and help the country make some savings on its crude oil imports.
Ato Ampiah, Managing Director of TOR, who disclosed this to journalists, said his outfit would resume operations from the first week of March.
This has become possible as a result of the completion of repair works on TOR’s refinery plant, which broke down in July last year due to some power supply challenges.
The state refinery last month secured about half GH¢67 million from government as part of its Plant Sustainability and Profit Enhancement programme.
TOR is expected to start refining about 30,000 barrels of crude oil a day when it starts operations.
Mr Ampiah stated that measures are being put in place to ensure that the refinery remains viable after the resumption.
According to him, the refinery has fixed “boilers which were consuming a lot of fuel oil. Last year we consumed almost about US$60 million worth of fuel oil, we are going to use only about 10 percent.’
Government’s indebtedness to TOR, otherwise christened ‘Tema Oil Refinery debt’ by past governments, currently stands at GH¢350 million. Government managed to pay about almost GH¢1 billion over the past four years.
TOR, as of now, needs about GH¢650 million for its daily operations.
The company’s management is said to be in negotiation with a bank for a trade finance facility, which will ensure sustainable procurement of crude oil.
The facility is expected to be provided by the end of March 2013. This is because the refinery has not been capitalized since the Government became the sole shareholder since 1977.
Financial institutions perceive TOR as a high-risk investment. Investors are unwilling to invest anything in TOR neither have they been interested in transacting business or establishing letters of credit (LC) with TOR due to the high debt on its balance sheet.