The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has announced it will from next year refine between 16 to 18 million barrels of crude oil.
The crude will be from the Jubilee oil fields and subsequently other oil fields in Ghana.
The Managing Director of TOR, Kwame Awuah Darko disclosed this when he addressed staff of the company at an end of year thanksgiving ceremony in Tema.
According to him, the expansion projects carried out by TOR should translate into refining the increased quantities of crude.
“The plan the company has in place is to make sure that in 2017 February, we go through our turnaround maintenance and because of the expanded capacity we now have we are planning to refine between 16 and 18 million barrels of crude oil in 2017. We are going to be in a place which I believe will be a much stronger place by the virtue of the foundation that we have laid,” he said.
Workers of TOR have been asking the government to allow Ghana’s crude oil to be refined by them.
They workers have among other things argued that refining the nation’s crude abroad is not cost effective.
The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has cautioned that TOR should only be allowed to refine crude oil if it will be cheaper.
But Mr. Awuah Darko was optimistic management will continue with laid down processes to achieve its set target.
“The concrete which we have cast is not yet hardened so there is still a lot of fragility and a lot of work to be done,” he asserted.
Kwame Awuah Darko who assumed office about a year now is however expected to leave office with the coming in of a new government.
In a brief statement to the staff of TOR, he expressed his appreciation to all and urged collaboration with the new management to take over.
“I am very sure that this is the very last time I will address you as a Managing Director hence change has come and when that change comes, we must all support that change and work accordingly,” he observed.
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