Ghana’s only oil refinery, the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has shut down its main crude distillation unit Saturday August 28, 2011 after running out of feedstock, the Reuters news agency reports, citing two unnamed sources with knowledge of TOR’s operations.
“We don’t have crude to process so the main plant is not working at the moment,” Reuters quoted one of the sources saying, adding that the refinery was waiting for a cargo from Nigeria. He did not say when the cargo was expected, it said.
The source also told Reuters, “We have not had a smooth production in the past months – today there is crude, tomorrow there is no crude – it’s been an off-and-on situation since the beginning of the year and it’s getting worse.”
Meanwhile, a source a TOR has confirmed to ghanabusinessnews.com that it is true the refinery has shut its main distillation unit because it has no crude to refine. Asked how that was so, the source said, “We give letters of credit to suppliers and they fail to supply.”
Asked who these suppliers are, the source declined to name them.
“We are however working on getting crude,” the source added.
The TOR refines 45,000 barrels of crude per day. The recent shortages have affected its ability to supply especially liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
BY Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
What the KNUST doing common pencil we export what good can we do for our self buy made in Ghana goods to stop the import of shoddy product which is even harmful to the local consumers health.
let be serious & stop the politics we are growing
TOR is useless need to be closed and build a new refinery with new staff. it a shame a governmennt company suach as this cannot be manage and always out of crude. poor management and poor procurement department. please restructure the whole management team as well the low level staff, there is too many ghost names in that company. Cannot do better and if Tor cannot be managed what else Ghana be able to manage.
when is Ghana supplying TOR with crude oil , since we keep on taking supply from the outside world, no wonder when supply is refused TOR has to shut down the main crude distillation unit.