Energy and Petroleum Ministry meet the press

Government is finalizing a business plan and a commercial framework to restructure the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to make it a world class facility.

As a result, a meeting involving all stakeholders, including the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning is scheduled for mid-September to discuss shareholders agreement and government support.

The meeting would also discuss a Consent Agreement and other related Off-Taker Agreements, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, Minister of Energy and Petroleum, said on Tuesday.

The Minister, who took his turn at the Meet-The-Press series in Accra, said timelines for negotiations and execution of documents, including submission to Parliament and Cabinet, were expected in the last quarter of the year.

"However, as a temporary measure, the management of TOR is negotiating with international and local financial institutions for funding to execute their annual mandatory maintenance in October this year,” he said.

The financial assistance being sought, according to the Minister, would also enable TOR to fund the supply of crude oil pending the completion of negotiation of all Project Agreements, Government Consent and Support Agreements.

Mr Buah said a number of measures had also been established to ensure that the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Limited (BOST) performed its core mandate of holding strategic reserve stocks, infrastructure development for storage and transportation of petroleum products.

He said among these measures, BOST had engaged TSL Logistics Limited on a pilot basis to efficiently manage and operate its depots and to assume liabilities related to stock losses.

“Inter-depot transfer of products has restarted. This will eventually lead to full resumption of the Zonalisation Policy, a policy that guarantees efficient, cheaper and uniform pricing and distribution of petroleum products in the country," the Minister said.

Mr Buah said BOST was earnestly working on the formal handover of its barges and tugboats to Volta Lake Transport Companies to enable consistent and cheaper transportation of petroleum products through the Volta Lake.

According to him, BOST, in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, had commenced negotiations with Burkina-Faso on the completion of the Bolgatanga-Bingo (Burkina-Faso) pipeline, which would generate huge foreign exchange revenue for the state through the supply of petroleum products to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

The Minister gave a rundown of all the various activities that were on-going under the Ministry, which includes issues in the Power Sub-sector, Renewable and Alternative energy as well as local content in petroleum activities.