TOR to clear debt in 10 yrs – CEO

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Mr Kwame Awuah Darko, has revealed that the company has laid out plans to settle all its debts within the next decade.

TOR has been crippled by debts which were estimated to be in excess of GHS1.9 billion as at 2015, but Mr Awuah-Darko was confident that revenue from the introduction of the Energy Debt Recovery Levy would help to settle that obligation.

In an interview on Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM on Tuesday May 3, the TOR boss said: “So, we have arranged with the banks and changed the debt into a 10-year bond. So we are going to use the TOR component of the Energy Levy to pay the interest on the bond so we pay the debt within the next ten years.”

He explained that TOR had further arranged with the banks for those bonds to be listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).

Asked what had accounted for the resurgence of the debt-ridden TOR which now refines and exports petroleum products, Mr Awuah-Darko pointed to the unity and understanding among workers, board, and management of the company.

“We have come together and resolved that we will not allow niggling issues to hold us back. Whatever we do, we will remain united and work to ensure progress. That is what is happening,” he told host Chief Jerry Forson.

He also praised government’s policy to deregulate the oil sector which he said had helped “create a free market for petroleum” and aided the profitability of the firm’s operations.