Kofi Ahovi

 President John Dramani Mahama has announced that the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has resumed processing crude oil into petroleum products for the first time since 2018. Delivering his State of the Nation Address, the President told Parliament that the refinery’s new management has successfully completed extensive turnaround maintenance, paving the way for the facility’s operational comeback. Mr. Speaker, I’m also pleased to announce to you that Tema Oil Refinery is back, For the first time since 2018, the refinery has commenced processing of crude oil into petroleum products again,” he said. The President described the development as a key milestone in ongoing efforts to revitalize Ghana’s energy sector and ensure energy security. He assured the House that reforms within the sector remain firmly on track. The Tema Oil Refinery had been inactive for several years, with major shutdowns due to maintenance challenges and financial constraints that left it unable to refine crude domestical...

The management of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has revealed that the company’s total debt stock reached $517 million as of December 2024, citing a combination of operational liabilities and government accounting adjustments as the cause. Speaking to journalists after an appearance before Parliament’s Energy Committee, TOR’s Acting Managing Director, Edmund Kombat, explained that a significant portion of the debt stemmed from trade obligations and unpaid crude oil supplies over the years. He further disclosed that some grants initially extended by the Ministry of Finance had been reclassified as debt under the government’s ongoing agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—a development that contributed to the surge in TOR’s liabilities. Despite the financial burden, he assured that TOR is working to restructure the debt and engage with stakeholders to clear the outstanding obligations. We are doing that verification, and as I mentioned, once we do that verification and authenticat...

  The government has been advised to re-focus on maximising the capacity of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) in the current challenge of fuel price hikes to help reduce the burden on ordinary Ghanaians. This is because the country has got to a point where importing finished petroleum products should not be a priority, as it only increases the prices of fuel and, consequently, worsens the economic hardship. The Chairman of the Ghana Upstream Petroleum Chamber (GUPC) and Senior Vice-President of Kosmos Energy, Joe Mensah, who gave the advice, explained that importing finished petroleum products was not good for the populace and the country because “the imported finished products are very expensive and, therefore, not affordable”. Speaking at the maiden annual Oil and Gas Conference of the GUPC in Accra yesterday, Mensah said: "We have TOR; let's make sure that we get it to a level where we can generate more fuel right here to help us.” He said the failure of TOR to function had contr...