Calls are intensifying for the government to allocate part of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Recovery Levy towards retooling and supporting the refinery, as efforts to revive the facility gain momentum.
After years of operating well below capacity — forcing Ghana to depend heavily on imported refined petroleum products — TOR’s long-stalled turnaround programme has begun to show signs of improvement in recent months.
The renewed push reflects growing industry confidence that a successful rehabilitation of TOR could significantly boost the downstream petroleum sector.
In an interview with Citi Business News, Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, Duncan Amoah, stressed that sustained investment would be essential for the refinery to operate efficiently and meet long-term market demand once full operations resume.
According to him, TOR’s current financial position makes it impossible for the refinery to independently finance petroleum cargoes, warning that without adequate funding, the facility risks collapsing again after a brief period of activity.
He urged the Ministry of Finance to apply part of the recovery levy accumulated over the years to TOR’s operations, including retooling the plant and providing about $80 million in revolving funds to guarantee the procurement of at least two to three cargoes to sustain refining activities.
Mr Amoah cautioned that failure to provide such support would result in a recurring cycle of short-term operations, shutdowns, and costly maintenance, stressing that both the Finance and Energy Ministries must treat the matter with urgency.
He additionally called for policy reforms to ensure a steady supply of domestically produced crude oil to the refinery, arguing that exporting crude only to import refined products is unsustainable.
Mr Amoah said Ghana must adopt a more strategic approach to petroleum agreements by prioritising domestic refining, insisting that for TOR to be truly sustainable, it must be guaranteed reliable crude allocations to keep the plant operational.
