By Dominic Hlordzi
Former President, John Dramani Mahama has pledged to revive the Tema Oil Refinery should he be elected again to lead Ghana in the 2024 general election.
According to him, the once vibrant refinery which was producing tonnes of oil products has now been left to collapse under the governing New Patriotic Party.
Addressing party delegates in Ashaiman over the weekend, John Mahama gave the assurance of revamping the refinery to its former glory to create jobs and provide oil products for domestic consumers.
“Since we (NDC) left office, TOR has never processed crude oil again. I remember before we left office, we sent to TOR the first batch of Ghanaian crude oil from our own oil fields for TOR to process. That oil sat there for several years, eventually, they discounted the oil and sold it out without processing it. I can assure you, when NDC comes back, TOR will stand on its feet again”.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Energy Policies and Research (INSTEPR) has said about $500 million was needed to revamp the Tema Oil Refinery.
Since 2018, the Tema Oil Refinery has not been operational due to a lack of crude oil which serves as a raw material for the refinery.
Apart from this, TOR is also faced with other challenges like broken equipment, and piled debt, among others.
Management of TOR in April 2022 sought approval from the Energy Ministry to engage some private sector players to revamp the oil refinery.
The green light for this development was, however, given on May 2, 2022.