Discharge of crude oil begins

Tema, Oct. 29, GNA - Discharging of the 997,000 barrels of crude oil supplied by the Sahara Oil Company Limited of Nigeria to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) started at about 10:55 hours on Thursday. It would take the Refinery about three days to fully discharge the long awaited oil, which is said to be the largest it has received since it commenced operation 46 years ago.

The discharging was made possible after Ecobank Ghana Limited provided the needed Letter of Credit to TOR to enable the Management to complete agreements with the suppliers, Sahara. Since the beginning of this year, TOR has not been able to perform, due to the unavailability of crude oil to the nation's refinery, established primarily, to refine crude oil.

The super jumbo motor tanker 'MT Wilhelmina' carrying the oil arrived in Ghanaian waters on Sunday from the Warri Port of Nigeria. It started discharging at the Single Point Mooring (SPM) through underground pipes into TOR's crude oil storage tanks. Mrs Aba Lokko, Public Affairs Manager of TOR, confirmed the discharging of the crude oil when contacted on phone by the GNA. Mrs Lokko could, however, not give details as she was at a meeting in Accra.

Meanwhile Mr Bernard Entsiwah and Mr Albert Pinto, Chairmen of the Senior Staff and Junior Staff Associations of TOR, respectively, have expressed workers' happiness at the fulfilment of President John Evans Atta Mills' promise to provide crude oil when he visited TOR last week. Mr Pinto said they have been given the assurance that steps have been taken to ensure sustainable supply of the crude oil.