'TOR Needs Revival'

For the past few years, the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has been reeling under financial and operational challenges that have made it extremely difficult for the refinery to discharge its responsibilities to the satisfaction of the Ghanaian populace. The lack of financial capacity has made it difficult for TOR to raise the required letters of credit (LCs) for the importation of crude oil for refining and, invariably, it has had to rely on private lenders, mostly the banks, to raise the LCs. But that has also come with the problem of sustainability and mounting debt. Again, obsolete and inadequate logistics have made it impossible for TOR to meet its production targets, let alone expand to meet the growing demand for petroleum products. All these challenges have resulted in perennial shortage of petroleum products, particularly petrol and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), thereby causing unnecessary anxiety among the populace. Two critical components of TOR � the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) and the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) Plant � have been shut down since early November as a result of the non-availability of crude oil for production. The situation is very disturbing, considering the approach of Christmas, a period when demand for petrol and LPG is so high, since the number of vehicles on the roads increases and domestic chores requiring the use of LPG become more rampant. It is to avoid such an unpalatable situation that the Daily Graphic endorses the call by some stakeholders in the oil industry on the government to address the challenges facing TOR to forestall the inconsistent supply of crude oil to the refinery. We believe that TOR needs capital injection to salvage it from its present financial predicament and enable it to raise LCs for the importation of crude oil without always relying on the private sector for that purpose. We cannot continue to put the fate of TOR in private hands because that poses the danger of the refinery running aground whenever its benefactors fail to deliver. There is also the need to improve and expand the facilities at TOR to enable the refinery to increase production to meet the increasing demand of petroleum products and, ultimately, address the perennial shortage of LPG and petrol, with the associated long queues at filling stations. We find it unacceptable that for a long time since the establishment of TOR, there has not been any major investment to increase the capacity of the refinery to meet emerging challenges in the oil refinery business. With Ghana joining the comity of oil producing countries in the world, it is even more imperative for the government to take a serious view of re-investing in TOR to position it well to take advantage of the opportunities the industry provides. The problems at TOR are too many and rampant and it is time for the government to take the bold decision to nip them in the bud.