THE Minister of Information, Mr John Tia Akologo, has denied that President John Evans Atta Mills has directed that only the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) should procure crude oil for the refinery.
He says the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) is the entity currently mandated to lift the country-to-country crude oil from Nigeria.
However, he explained that the mandate of the GNPC did not debar TOR from procuring its own crude or securing oil supplies from other sources.
Reacting to concerns by some workers of TOR over the state of business at the refinery, Mr Akologo assured the public that there was enough fuel stock, in spite of the shutdown of TOR.
According to the minister, figures released to the government by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) showed that the current stock available could last for the next five weeks.
He said there was also arrangement, “as is always the case, to secure more supplies, taking into consideration the production schedules of TOR”.
He explained that the immediate reason for the shutdown of the refinery was the inability of the supplier sourced by TOR to deliver on the scheduled date between April 8 and 10, 2010.
The minister said the supplier, Apasuo, was unable to deliver because the vessel bringing the crude oil did not meet the required standards of the Tema Offshore Mooring.
According to the him, “It can, therefore, not be true that the Minister for Energy or any other government official has flouted any directive or denied TOR the opportunity to procure crude for its operations.”
“Indeed, TOR’s own schedule for crude imports shows as many as six different companies lined up to supply crude between now and the middle of May this year,” he stressed.
Mr Akologu said contrary to the claim by workers, the present arrangement allowed the GNPC and TOR to work together until such time that TOR was able and had the ability to raise letters of credit on its own.
“The government remains committed to the financial restructuring of TOR, which involves the injection of funds into the refinery. That has been demonstrated with the recent payment to the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) of GH445 million on behalf of the refinery,” he said.
Workers of TOR yesterday renewed their call for the removal of the Energy Minister, Dr Joe Oteng Adjei, for decreeing that the GNPC must be the only agency supplying crude oil to the refinery, reports Della Russel Ocloo from Tema.
The workforce, wearing red armbands, amidst the singing of war songs, also called on the President to take immediate steps to dissolve TOR’s board of directors for gross incompetence.
They also accused officials of the GNPC and its Board Chairman, Mr Ato Ahwoi, of usurping their influence to make the refinery a tolling facility as part of their objective to maximise profit, at the expense of the taxpayer.
Speaking at an emergency meeting to press home their demand, in the wake of crude oil shortage that has hit the refinery, leading to the shutdown of the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) and the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) plant, the Chairman of the Senior Staff Union, Mr Daniel Fugah, regretted that the issue of crude oil for production was still hanging as an albatross around the neck of TOR’s management and the government.
According to him, the management of TOR supported the union’s protest against the GNPC’s tolling arrangement which would see the corporation paying a processing fee of $32.5 per metric tonne of crude of oil belonging to the GNPC refined by TOR.
He regretted that the minister and his cronies, as well as other faceless people in and out of government, were still working around the clock to see the tolling agreement through.
According to the union, the management of the refinery spent a huge amount of money through a ‘gasification’ process when restarting the plant, leading to acute shortage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the country.
Mr Fugah stated that the Ministry of Energy and the management of TOR could have saved the refinery the $300,000 being lost daily as a result of the shutdown of the RFCC on April 7, this year.
The Secretary of the Junior Staff Union, Mr Gideon Avorgbedor, stated that during his visit to the refinery last September, the President had been emphatic on reviewing the monopoly of Sahara Oil’s supply of crude oil in the country.
The move, according to him, resulted in a meeting among officials of TOR, the GNPC, the ministry and the Chief of Staff, during which a mandate was given to TOR to procure its own crude oil, process and market it.
“Why is TOR being prevented from procuring crude oil through Sahara Oil?” he asked.
He also alleged that the GNPC’s continued insistence on the tolling agreement was informed by the usurping of power and influence by its Board Chairman, Mr Ahwoi.
He also asked whether Dr Oteng Adjei, as the Minister in charge of the sector, was happy with the daily dwindling in fortunes of the refinery.
The Secretary of the Senior Staff Union, Mr Ato Anderson, indicated that the life span of the plants was diminishing owing to the frequent shutdowns, saying that “a refinery is supposed to be shut down in 18 months owing to its petrochemical nature”.
When contacted, Dr Oteng Adjei refused to comment on the allegations.
According to him, he was out of the country and had not received any information on the workers’ protest from his deputy.
He, however, said he would respond appropriately as soon as he got back to the country in a day or two.
The Chief Executive of the GNPC, Nana Boakye Asafu Adjaye, could also not be reached for his comment, as he was reported to be in a meeting.
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