President John Dramani Mahama has officially commissioned the refurbished Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) at the weekend, marking a significant milestone in the government’s “Energy Sector Reset Agenda”.
The ceremony, held at the Refinery’s premises, signalled a decisive shift from years of inactivity toward a future defined by energy security and industrial transformation.
Prior to this intervention, the refinery had become a “white elephant,” suffering under a private operating arrangement that failed to deliver intended outcomes and left core operations largely dormant
President Mahama noted during the ceremony that while many state-owned enterprises had been sold to private individuals in the past, TOR was also on the verge of being leased out before his administration intervened to restore it as a strategic national asset.
President Mahama described the project as a testament to national resilience, stating that his government chose the “demanding path of rebuilding” rather than the easier path of abandoning failing institutions.
Minister for Energy and TOR examines a Jar
He emphasised that the revival of TOR affirms Ghana’s ability to utilise its own natural resources, expertise and vision to create lasting prosperity for its people and future generations.
Technical revitalisation of the CDU, described as the “heart” of the refinery, was led by Managing Director, Edmond Kombat and a dedicated Turn around Maintenance Team.
This facelift, which included tank rehabilitation, logistics improvements and upgraded staff transportation, was impressively funded through internally generated funds rather than external debt.
Dr. John Abdulai Jinapor, Minister for Energy and Green Transition, disclosed that he halted a pending 10-year lease of the refinery for $22 million because the agreement lacked parliamentary approval.
He praised the Managing Director for independently raising that same $22 million to fund the revamp, as well as the workers who operated 24 hours a day to ensure the refinery returned to its current capacity which transformation is expected to restore investor confidence and allow Ghana to refine its own domestic crude oil locally.
By reducing the nation’s heavy dependence on imported refined petroleum products, the refinery will play a critical role in advancing the President’s “24-Hour Economy” and the broader “Reset Agenda” through the revitalisation of national assets.
Dr. Jinapor confirmed that a comprehensive roadmap has been prepared to expand TOR’s refining capacity to 100,000 barrels per day in the near future.
This ambitious target aims to position Ghana as a petroleum hub for the West African sub-region, capable of exporting refined products to neighboring countries and ensuring that the refinery’s period of decline remains a thing of the past.
Dr. Abdulah Salifu of UNICOF, representing the refinery’s workforce, highlighted the resilience of staff who resisted the facility’s degradation into a mere “fuel farm”.
He expressed gratitude for the President’s policy-guided initiatives, which have already resulted in the promotion of 260 workers, salary increments via a new collective bargaining agreement and the construction of a new access road leading to the facility.
Despite the progress, the staff union appealed for further government intervention to address TOR’s legacy debt and ensure its long-term profitability by integrating it into the country’s upstream crude oil supply.
Dr. Salifu also proposed listing the refinery on the Ghana Stock Exchange to restructure ownership and protect the asset from potential mismanagement by “self-seeking” entities in the future.
By Mohammed T. Kataba
