Petroleum union calls for investigations into missing crude condensate

The General Transport Petroleum Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU), the mother union of the Tema Oil Refinery workers, has called for an investigation into circumstances leading to the missing of crude condensate worth $2.5 million at the refinery.

Mr. Bernard Owusu, National Chairman of the GTPCWU, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Tema, stressed the need for a thorough investigation into the matter as they were waiting to hear the outcome of an inquiry into the incident.

Mr. Owusu revealed that through their call, the State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA) referred the matter to the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) to conduct investigations.

It could be recalled that in April 2023, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Energy, disclosed that crude condensate worth $2.5 million had gone missing from the country’s only refinery.

The Minister revealed these following calls from the Union for the government to revamp the ailing refinery for Ghana to derive economic benefit from its operations.

According to him, he secured a deal for TOR as a new business opportunity in the premix fuel sector to ensure that all the crude condensate from Ghana Gas would be used by the refinery to make premix fuel as part of the revamping process.

The Minister stated, however, that, the last time he heard, over $2.5 million worth of condensate had gone missing from the refinery.

Meanwhile, Mr. Abraham Koomson, Secretary General of the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL), has reiterated that the lack of political will from successive governments has been the reason for the deteriorating state of TOR.

He said that because governments have not taken strong action against revamping the refinery, it keeps deteriorating day in and day out.

Mr. Koomson also said in an interview that the continuous cry of TOR workers and Organized Labour was worrying and needed to be addressed.

He added that it was disturbing how the refinery, with the best engineers and the capacity to refine many barrels a day, was only carrying finished products instead of fulfilling its fundamental mandate of refining crude.

The GFL Secretary-General mentioned that Ghana was currently going through financial agony and a debt restructuring programme, hence the need to promote local industries, which would be a key component in building the nation.

Mr. Koomson admonished that refurbishing TOR to work at full capacity would help reduce pressure on the Ghana Cedi by reducing financing charges as these transactions were cedi denominated.

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