The General Transport, Petroleum, and Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) has described President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s promise to revamp the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) as mere rhetoric.
The President, on Friday, January 26, 2024, commissioned the newly built private Sentuo Oil Refinery located a few metres from TOR, where he assured Ghanaians of his government’s commitment to revamping the dying state oil refinery.
He said that they would stop at nothing to bring TOR on stream so that, together with Sentuo, more of Ghana’s oil would be refined in the country.
Mr Bernard Owusu, the National Chairman of the GTPCWU, reacting to the statement, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the promise was just another piece of rhetoric that would not yield any result.
Mr. Owusu questioned that if, for the past seven to eight years that the president had steered the affairs of the country, he had not stepped foot in TOR, which is a national asset, what would he do when his term was coming to an end?
“The President, for eight years, had not visited TOR, even though we have raised a lot of issues there.
“He has refused to even pass by and give encouragement to the workers, but he passed in front of the refinery to go and open a private refinery some few metres from it. What he said is just rhetoric, nothing serious,” he emphasised.
He questioned how Sentuo, a private investment, was listed under the One District, One Factory (1D1F) initiative when the government could have also used the same 1D1F initiative to revamp the operations of the ailing TOR.
On whether the opening of Sentuo would affect the viability of TOR, he said it would rather bring some competition into the sector, indicating that it was their hope that the government would address TOR’s issues to put it in a better position to compete since it has the capacity to produce.
The Tema Oil Refinery, which commenced operations in September 1963 with a capacity of 45,000 barrels per stream day, is currently faced with numerous operational challenges.
Sentuo Oil Refinery, which has the capacity to produce 100,000 barrels per day when fully completed, is currently in its first phase and is expected to produce 40,000 barrels of refined products per day.
GNA