Mr Isaac Osei, Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery(TOR), says the country’s refinery must be allowed to refine portions of Ghana’s crude oil for the local market instead of selling all on the international market.
Mr Osei noted that at the moment, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) sells all of the country’s oil on the international market while TOR shops around for crude oil to refine into finished products for local consumption.
According to him, the situation did not give Ghanaians the confidence and excitement they were supposed to have following Ghana’s discovery of oil in commercial quantities.
He said this on the sidelines of the just ended offshore Technology Conference in Houston Texas USA, at a special panel put together by the Ministry of Energy to discuss issues affecting Ghana’s Energy Sector.
The people of Ghana would better appreciate the real benefits of the recent discoveries of crude oil in Ghana when a percentage of the locally discovered crude oil were refined by the state-owned Tema Oil Refinery.
“For many Ghanaians, this is a paradox that government has to resolve. Ghana has discovered crude oil in commercial quantities and this should translate into the state refinery being provided a portion of such crude as its feedstock.
The people of Ghana and government as a whole would benefit a great deal and the government’s agenda of Ghana Without Aid would be given additional boost it the right structures are put in place and TOR is made to refine local crude oil from TEN, Jubilee and or Sankofa fields as feedstock, ”he stated.
He added that TOR had refined TEN crude in the past which gave Ghana good yields in terms of finished products so refining crude oil from Jubilee and Sankofa should not be a problem for the Refinery.
He indicated that TOR’s boilers were designed to process light sweet crude which is drilled in Ghana.
Mr Osei observed that the good yields from TEN crude coupled with a special financial arrangement that would be put in place to cover such transaction would mean quicker payback period.
Former Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, added that “while this would ensure energy product security on the Ghanaian market, it would also boost the confidence of Ghanaians in that the nation was adding value to its own resources”.
He, however, said he was not oblivious of the financial implications of such decisions and recommended that a well-structured financial model should be put in place by government and its strategic partners to support such a move.
Mr Osei stressed that Ghana’s energy sector could positively contribute to the government’s Ghana Beyond Aid agenda when a strategic synergy was created between the upstream sections.
Touching on the important roles played by both the upstream and downstream sectors, he laid emphasis on how synergies should be created in both the upstream and downstream sections of the Energy sector to ensure product security and value addition.
“We can’t continue to treat both upstream and downstream as separate entities in our energy sector development. We must create a healthy synergy between the two”.
He added that a key factor in insuring this synergy, however, was training and development which he added that TOR was championing by training several workers of MODEC International.
Source: GNA
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TOR HAS RECENTLY UNDERGONE A VERY EXTENSIVE TUAROUND MAINTENANCE AND RESHAPED ALL THE CRITICAL EQUIPMENT WHICH ARE READY TO GO. ISSUES OF LOSSES ARE NO MORE. ALL THE POTENTIAL AREAS OF LOSSES HAVE BEEN BLOCKED. THE MINISTER CAN FORM A COMMITTEE TO LOOK INTO THIS ASSERTION. LETS HELP THIS ONCE AN ENVIABLE ORGANIZATION TO RISE ON ITS FEET AGAIN. PLS ALL GHANAIANS SHOULD SUPPORT THIS CLARION CALL.
Thanks for your courage, TOR CEO. Tell it as it is. Your organization needs Ghana's crude. Our checks reveal that your machines can process esentially all the Ghana crudes. Press on. If there are hidden facts that are impeding your work tell us. Ghanaians are ready to support you. If you don't make wild the politicians will tarnish your reputation. Don't agree.
As nunu mensah said, 'our politicians just take our mandate and ***barred word*** with it'. One cannot understand, apart from these thiieves benefiting from idling TOR, why an edifice like TOR will be made to waste out like we are seeing. The successive governments have no excuse whatsoever to explain why TOR is not working. Any reason they give is either infantile or ***barred word*** driven. If you say TOR equipment are old why can't you refix with new and available up-to-date system? If government doesn't have the needed capital why cant't we offload some of the ownership share to a strategic partner? if TOR management are incompetent why can't we sack them and replace them with abundantly competent ghanaians? It is inexcusable shame that our fathers of old could think of us and beyond and built an income generating edifice like TOR and we the modern generation see it wasting. The only tenable explanation we can give is that modern day politicians are shallow, inept or extremely greed. both NPP and NDC are the same. They only play with our minds by deceit and the fact that we readily forgive and forget. as shameful as it sounds, some of them even plainly tell us we have short memories. but the universe is not a vain space, there are forces that govern. time will tell. one day......long live TOR. long live Ghana. rest in peace our fathers of old, especially Dr Kwame Nkrumah.