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Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has indicated that it is not true it lacks the technical knowhow to refine crude oil from Jubilee Field. The Public Affairs Manager of TOR, Aba Lokko said they have the capacity to refine crude oil from the Jubilee Field however, their only challenge is �money�. TOR was established by Ghana�s first President, Kwame Nkrumah. As the Ghanaian Italian Petroleum Company (GHAIP), it is a facility fitted to refine light and sweet crude oil at the most reasonable price. For many years, this meant that the TOR imported and refined crude oil from Nigeria, our closest oil blessed neighbour at the time. Over the last six years however, activity at the Oil Refinery has steadily slowed to a halt. It has become an inefficient facility due in part to delayed or unattended maintenance. TOR�s core business has over the years been broadened to include procurement, storage, refinery and distribution of crude oil. With the discovery of substantial oil reserves (of up to 800 million barrels) off the Ghanaian coast in 2007, it was expected that the Tema Oil Refinery would play a key role in the new-born oil industry. However, that was not to be. In May 2011, at a media interaction programme organized by Tullow for journalists in the Northern Region in Tamale, Mr Kwarteng Amaning Jr, a Petroleum Engineer with Tullow Ghana Limited, gave the impression that TOR cannot refine the crude oil being produced at the Jubilee Oil Field. According to him, the crude oil being produced at the Jubilee Oil Field was a premium quality, described internationally as "Sweet Light Oil," and requires a refinery built to specification to be able to refine it. Mr Amaning said TOR was built specifically to refine a type of crude oil that was of less quality to what is being produced at the Jubilee Field, adding that for TOR to be able to refine the Jubilee Field product, it must be retrofitted. And last year, the Energy Ministry also told the media that the refinery was not in a position to process Ghana�s crude oil from the Jubilee Field. But speaking to Nana Yaw Kesse on PEACE FM's "Kokrokoo" Morning Show, Aba Lokko discounted such claims saying: �we have the capacity to refine our own crude... It is not true that we cannot refine our own crude but our problem is our finances�. She added that once they have the resources, the only thing they need to do is to negotiate with the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC). Click to listen to the interview between Madam Lokko and Nana Yaw Kesse