Ghana: Mahama Pledges Steady Jubilee Crude Supply To TOR, Targets 100,000 Bpd Expansion

Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama on Saturday pledged to ensure the country’s allocation of crude from the Jubilee field is supplied to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to support continuous operations and strengthen fuel security, as he commissioned the refinery’s rehabilitated Crude Distillation Unit (CDU).

The restored CDU is expected to increase refining capacity to about 45,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 28,000 bpd.

Mahama said he had directed the Minister of Energy and Green Transitions to work with TOR’s board and management to develop a plan to expand capacity to 100,000 bpd.

“For many Ghanaians, TOR had become a symbol of unrealised potential,” Mahama said at the commissioning ceremony in Tema.

“We do not intend merely to keep TOR operating. We intend to make TOR more competitive, more efficient and more commercially viable,” he said.

Mahama said the refinery had faced years of operational difficulties before he took office, with production halted, debts mounting, equipment deteriorating and public confidence declining.

Some had argued Ghana should abandon domestic refining and rely on imported petroleum products, he said.

“Nations that aspire to greatness do not abandon strategic institutions like TOR whenever adversity strikes. They reform them, modernise them, restore them and prepare them to compete again,” Mahama said.

He said TOR had received three cargoes of one million barrels each since May, sourced from Nigeria’s Bonga field, Ivory Coast’s Baobab field and Ghana’s Jubilee field.

“I wish to state again that we fully paid for the Ghanaian crude. It was not given to us on credit,” he said.

“This represents a clear statement of the government’s commitment to ensuring that our petroleum resources add value here at home.”

Mahama said the refinery resumed crude processing on Dec. 19, 2025, after rehabilitation of its Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) unit. Since then, TOR has processed about 2 million barrels of crude into gasoline, gas oil, aviation turbine kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene, residual fuel oil and premixed fuel.

He said the rehabilitation and operational turnaround had been achieved “without a single cedi from the government of Ghana.”

Mahama said increasing TOR’s refining capacity would reduce Ghana’s dependence on imported petroleum products, conserve foreign exchange and strengthen the country’s energy security.

He described the recommissioning of the CDU as the start of a broader effort to develop an integrated petroleum industry that would serve the domestic economy, support regional trade and contribute to Africa’s industrialisation.

Mahama commended TOR’s management and board for restoring crude processing and said the government would introduce safeguards to ensure the refinery’s long-term operational sustainability and protect it from political interference.