Ghana’s Minister- designate for Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has expressed that only a collective decision can save the West African country’s only oil refinery, Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) instead of leaving it in the hands of politicians alone.
Tema Oil Refinery was built in 1963 with a capacity of 45,000 bpd during the regime of Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
The Osagyefo’s vision for establishing TOR was for reforming and transforming the country’s oil and gas sector to ensure efficiency while meeting the energy demands of Ghana and the sub-region.
However, despite Ghana exploiting oil in commercial quantities, the refinery’s bad management, under successive governments, has left the refinery in a poor state, leaving over 900 workforce living under poor working conditions.
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The Tema District Council of Labour, the umbrella body of workers in Ghana’s industrial city, recently, petitioned the seat of Government to replace the current management with strategic thinkers since the current management has failed.
Answering a question from Honourable Patrick Yaw Boamah, a member of the Appointments’ Committee of Parliament on Friday, 12, 2021, on his assessment of TOR and what he would do to change the situation, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Energy Minister-designate, noted that the refinery’s indebtedness continues to balloon.
According to him, there is the need to put people with the right skills to turn things around, as well as a right partner to ensure that the refinery works again.