The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) says government must get the Tema Oil Refinery up and running if it hopes to attract funding for its planned petroleum hub.
Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah, says the current state of TOR will not boost investor confidence to raise funds for the petroleum hub.
He stated that, “If I were a private investor, would I want to put in $60 billion in a country whose only refinery it cannot even manage? These are questions that would be asked in and around the petroleum hub discussion and I’m quite sure that no matter how much government equity funding would be, whichever private funding will be coming in will also be interested in exactly how we intend to protect whatever resources they will be dumping in here.”
TOR is the premier and only refinery in Ghana but things have not been going well with the company.
Its operations have become inconsistent following the frequent shutdown of its processing plants mainly due to lack of capital to regularly procure crude oil.
Earlier this week, workers of the refinery gave the President a one-week ultimatum to dissolve the board of the company over perceived incompetence in the management of the facility.
Parliament recently passed the Petroleum Hub Development Corporation Bill 2020.
The Bill, once assented to by the President, will establish the Petroleum Hub Development Corporation to promote and develop a petroleum and petrochemicals hub in Ghana’s Western Region.
The project will involve the development of infrastructure such as refineries, port terminal facilities, storage facilities, as well as petrochemical and Liquefied Natural Gas terminals with a network of pipelines to supply petroleum and petrochemical products for both domestic and sub-regional markets.
The report of the Select Committee on Mines and Energy on the bill revealed that the establishment of the Petroleum and Petrochemical Hub would contribute enormously to the economic growth of the country through value addition to the country’s petroleum resources and job creation.