The Institute of Energy Security (IES) has advised government to revive the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
Getting a stable and affordable price for petroleum products in Ghana has been very difficult for previous governments and the current administration is at the moment, seeking alternative fuel arrangements to ease pressure on the limited forex available, in a novel gold-for-oil programme.
However, the institute, believes that the government must rather focus on the local production of petroleum products by reviving TOR, while encouraging private sector investments in the refinery business.
Speaking in an interview, Nana Amoasi VII, Executive Secretary of the Institute of Energy Security, opined that fully functional TOR can drastically reduce the country’s oil imports.
“We have an existing Tema Oil Refinery that can produce 45,000 barrels per day that can meet almost half of our daily demand. Tema Oil Refinery is not going to give us only that assurance of fuel supply, it is also a ground to train our engineers.”
Nana Amoasi
Nana Amoasi VII further alleged that the continued neglect of the Tema Oil Refinery is due to the narrow interest of people who benefit from the importation of Crude.
“We believe that it is not in the interest of some groups to see the TOR work. If that is not the case then the Energy Minister and the President would have been more focused on this arrangement than focus on gold for oil and put a value on somebody’s oil against your own crude.”
Amoasi
Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Limited is the only refinery in Ghana and is authorized by its regulators to process crude oil and market petroleum products.
The Refinery was 100% owned by the ENI Group (Ente Nationalie Indrocarburi) of Italy. The Government of Ghana bought all the shares of GHAIP in April 1977 and became sole shareholder. In 1990 the name was changed to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
Our Oil Blocks Are Ready To Be Tapped
Meanwhile, Ghana’s Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has asked investors in London to take advantage of the numerous opportunities in Ghana’s upstream petroleum industry.
Hon Matthew Prempeh, who is leading a Ghanaian delegation in london, seek to put on show six (6) available oil blocks for massive investment which are the Deep Water Cape Three Points Block, Offshore Cape Three Points South Block, Shallow Water Cape Three Points Block and Southwest Saltpond Block.
It also include the Expanded Shallow Water Tano (ESWT) Block, and Offshore Cape Three Points South (OCTPS) Block.
The Minister, at a strategic roadshow event at the Cavendish Conference Centre disclosed that, Ghana has four Sedimentary basins of significance to oil and gas namely; Western, Central, Eastern and the Voltaian. He said the Western basin has Ghana’s three actively producing deepwater oil and gas fields.
“Having fast-tracked the development of the Jubilee Field, first commercial oil production commenced in December 2010, barely 40 months from discovery. Two new fields (Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) Field and Sankofa – Gye Nyame Field) have since been brought onstream for production in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
“The three producing (3) fields currently provide an average daily production of about 150,000 bbl/d from a peak production rate approximately 200,000 bbl/d. Three of the six available blocks are available for farm-in opportunities. These are Expanded Shallow Water Tano (ESWT) currently operated by Base Energy Ghana Limited, Deep-Water Cape Three Points (DWCTP) originally operated by ExxonMobil, but now operated by Goil Upstream Limited.”
Energy Minister
The lawmaker also highlighted the availability of an existing architecture to support infrastructure-led exploration, which shortens the time between exploration and production. He thus urged investors to find in Ghana a friend and partner.
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