The Acting CEO of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Isaac Osei has allayed concerns over any significant impact on supplies of petroleum products following the suspension of works at the refinery.
According to him, there is enough buffer to cater for a potential drop in supply of petroleum products. “The production in the meantime will be reduced somewhat but this does not mean that it will have an effect on the public which uses products supplied by TOR,” “The model which is in use, TOR does not hold its own stock of crude or finished products; crude for the time being belongs to BOST and so whatever shortfalls there are, will be taken care of by these bodies,” the Acting CEO stated.
The explosion of a newly installed furnace at the Central Distillation Unit on Thursday, has led to a shutdown of the facility. There were no casualties as engineers are reported to have stepped in to avert any harm. But Isaac Osei explained on Eyewitness News on Friday the development is likely to result in a reduction from a daily production of 45, 000 barrels of crude.
The assurance from the former MP for Subin comes despite concerns by some analysts that the situation could lead to hikes in prices of some petroleum products. The Director of Research and Policy at the Institute of Energy and Climate Change Policy, Dr. Philip Adom told Citi Business News the hikes may occur within the medium term. “The most obvious thing is that there is going to be serious supply disruption and if we do not take immediate action to resolve that then there is going to be increases in prices.
Anytime that there is a supply deficiency, the market responds by hoarding products. If we have to resort to international crude then there will be cost implications to consumers.” The damaged furnace which was commissioned in December 2016, costs about 5 million Euros.
Meanwhile Isaac Osei has stated that investigations are ongoing to determine a plan by the managers of the facility to avert another occurrence. “The effects of the explosion were contained in a very quick time and at the moment there is a technical committee investigating and so we have to wait for the outcome… when the report is ready we may out the outcome available to the public,” he observed.
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