The refinery, which resumed operations on January 2, 2018, experienced a forced shutdown on January 18, 2018.

The IES attributed the shutdown to non-compliance to procedures and practices, and alleges technical and operational lapses, factionalism, vindictiveness, mismanagement, absence of teamwork and lack of due diligence, which the energy think-tank said have consumed TOR, causing financial loss to the state.

Principal research analyst of IES, Richmond Rockson made these allegations in a statement, but Dr Kingsley Antwi-Boasiako, head of Public Affairs of TOR, described the accusations as pure falsehood which should be disregarded by the public.

“We can categorically say that there is no leadership crisis at TOR.

We are working together as a team and we would be happy if people would stop peddling such falsehood about the refinery,” Dr Antwi-Boasiako stressed.

According to him, all the information put out by IES are inaccurate and incoherent.

But, Rockson said, two weeks after the start of the refinery, a leakage was detected in the stabiliser reboiler (heat-exchanger E-19), forcing the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) to go a week without stabilisation.

“Normally, when crude oil is fed into the CDU, it should take about four hours to warm up, break circulation at 200°C and attain transfer temperature at 345°C for distillation to begin.
“And anything beyond four to five hours distorts the crude’s yield pattern.

Strangely, it took about one week to stabilise the plant for optimum distillation, causing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to mix with naphtha, leading to loss of 280,000 litres of LPG.

“Subsequently, the plant was forced to shut down due to excessive pressure rapturing the Residue Air Cooler (EA64), adding to the financial loss caused the country as a result of last year’s explosion,” Rockson explained.

IES asks questions.

IES asked questions such as: Was a thorough post-turnaround test carried out before re-starting the refinery’s CDU? Was the pressure indicator of Residue Air Cooler working? Was log-sheet kept? And how well are the operations, monitoring and maintenance of the refinery being carried out?

Rockson stated that one would have thought that lessons were going to be drawn from the furnace (F61) explosion at TOR about 12 months ago.

Unfortunately, he said, management of the refinery appears not to have learnt any lesson from the January 26, 2017 incident that destroyed property and nearly took lives of the refinery workers.

IES said recent happenings at TOR call for immediate action, and is, therefore, calling on the government to, as a matter of urgency, “address the leadership crisis at TOR.”

Ageing equipment and failure to undertake three consecutive turnaround maintenance since 2011 took a heavy toll on the operations.

With 45,000 barrels per day capacity, TOR should be able to refine over 16 million (16,425,000) barrels of crude oil annually.

3 Turnaround maintenance missed.

By design, the refinery is expected to run continuously for a maximum of two years before it is shut down for a major maintenance of its equipment.

The last time a general shutdown turnaround maintenance was carried out was in 2009.

The general shutdown turnaround maintenance for 2011, 2013 and 2015 were not carried out because of lack of cash.

The sources said plans are far advanced to carry out general shutdown turnaround maintenance before the end of this year.

$67.7m Turnaround maintenance.

In 2010, TOR requested for $67.7 million for plant stabilisation and enhancement projects.

In response, the government in 2012 released $30 million, which was used to complete the first phase of plant stabilisation and enhancement projects on the crude distillation and residual fluid catalytic cracking units.

TOR has completed the first phase of plant stabilisation and enhancement projects on the crude distillation and residual fluid catalytic cracking units at a cost of $30 million.

A second phase of stabilisation and enhancement projects designed to ensure the reliability of operations at the refinery delayed.

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Source: The Finder Newspaper

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A shortage of premix fuel hit the country in July this year, with some fishermen threatening to go on demonstrations over it. Afoley Quaye at the time attributed this shortage to faulty pumps at the Tema Oil Refinery.

According to the minister, the president gave this order after realising that the premix fuel that is currently available is not enough to meet demand.

[contextly_sidebar id=”6V6Tc0En7LNmXj0nRb0SZfzXoNdBx6Vu”]“You were getting enough premix fuel from January to June but the supply has gone down in the peak season. Because of this, the president has ordered Tema Oil Refinery to start working on weekends to get you more premix fuel to work with,” the minister told the people of Ekumfi, a fishing community in the Central Region.

Shortage of Premix Fuel

Fishermen have been complaining about the inadequate supply of premix fuel to meet their needs.

According to them, the shortage has compelled them to stay out of business for a while.

TOR denies responsibility for premix shortage

TOR, however, came out to dismiss claims that challenges with its pump systems have contributed to the shortage.

The refinery has said that its systems are all in good condition and that it has the capacity to produce to meet demand.

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By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong
Follow @ojsarpong

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The chamber petitioned the President last week to pass a regulation that will compel BDCs to import diesel with 10ppm sulphur level, after Swiss NGO, Eagle Eye in conjunction with the African Center for Energy Policy(ACEP) published that African countries including Ghana consume dirty fuel.

The National Petroleum Authority(NPA) on Monday announced that government has directed the sulphur level to be reduced from 3,000ppm while BDCs import diesel with 10ppm sulphur level.

Speaking to Citi Business News, the Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah stated that the explanation is a weak since fuel from TOR f will also be consumed by Ghanaians.

“It is a very weak argument and it is  more or less a compromising position that says indeed the high sulphur is bad, the 500ppm itself is also bad but as it stands because we have not been able to do the right investment in our refinery let the refinery continue to work to provide the high bad toxic fuel to the rest of the people while the BDCs are made to bring much cleaner products,” he said.

According to him, the country cannot have different standards for different institutions since it will be discriminatory.

He questioned the rationale behind the reduction if high sulphur fuel will be allowed on the Ghanaian market just keep TOR in operations.

“What happens to these products when they end up co-mingling in ones tank. The issue of the TOR is not tangible,” he said.

He pointed out that as at now the TOR laboratory is currently the only petrochemical laboratory in the country that ascertain most of the standards hence the same refinery cannot be made to check sulphur content of the imported products.

He therefore called for an independent laboratory to check all sulphur levels in the country including oil refined by the TOR.

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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

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This is because the country’s oil refinery the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR)is yet to raise money to change its equipment to lower the sulphur content in diesel.

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) on Monday [October 3] revised the acceptable national sulphur specification for diesel from maximum 3000 parts per million (ppm) to 500 ppm.

The Chief Executive Officer of the NPA, Moses Asaga told Citi Business News that TOR lacks the capacity to meet the specification hence will be forced to the maintain high Sulphur levels in its revision figures to avert a complete shutdown of TOR.

“The countries in Africa that have attempted 50 ppm, have closed down their refineries because their refineries cannot produce 50ppm. So we have taken a middle position, that is, making sure we get the right quality but at the same time keep Tema Oil Refinery in operation,” he said.

The change is to take effect from January 2017 but TOR’s current financial strength has cast doubt on effective implementation of the new sulphur specification.

Energy policy think tank, African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), in an  interview with Citi Business News said thousands of Ghanaians lose their lives every year due to the  inhalation of fumes from dirty diesel which contain high levels of sulphur.

ACEP in partnership with Swiss NGO, Public Eye, recently revealed that Swiss commodity trading firms are exploiting lax regulatory standards to sell dirty diesel to African countries including Ghana.

The report which surveyed eight African countries including Ghana, indicated that the Sulphur content of diesel samples in such countries was more than 300 times the acceptable level in Europe, US and Kenya in Africa which has 50 parts per million (ppm).

However Asaga stated that “the 500ppm is to make sure that technically the Tema Oil Refinery will be able to produce the 500ppm when it comes to the importation, the Bulk Distribution Companies, they will import the 10ppm and the Tema Oil Refinery’s 500ppm can then be blended to come to required standard.”

He also said the closure of the refinery will lead to a loss of jobs for many hence the decision to wait for three years.

“If we close the refinery, it will mean that there will be loss of jobs and chaos so there is a timeline for ECOWAS that all refineries should be given three (3) years for them to upgrade their equipment and the only equipment the Tema Oil Refinery requires now is a de-sulphurizer to be able to reduce the Sulphur levels to the 10ppm.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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