IMF delegation assesses Tema Oil Refinery recovery efforts

Edmond Kombat launches plan to boost TOR capacity to 200,000 barrels

The Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Edmond Kombat, has unveiled a four-year transformation agenda titled ‘Restoration and Legacy Projects’ aimed at increasing the facility's refining capacity from 45,000 to 200,000 barrels per day. The ambitious plan, which aligns with President John Mahama’s ‘Reset Agenda,’ seeks to expand the existing refinery to 85,000 barrels per stream day and construct a new 115,000-barrel facility. This initiative is designed to ensure that Ghana meets approximately 70% of its national fuel demand through domestic refining by 2028, significantly enhancing the country's energy security. Mr. Kombat revealed that the refinery has already made substantial progress in financial restructuring, successfully reducing its debt from $650 million to approximately $300 million. This turnaround was supported by the Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA) and has allowed the refinery to settle outstanding obligations with four major banks. Furthermore, the management is utilizing internally generated funds to rehabilitate dormant infrastructure, including the crude distillation unit, which had been inactive since April 2021. Following maintenance, the refinery resumed operations on December 19, 2025, processing shipments of Jubilee Medium Sweet crude and other petroleum products. To further stabilize pump prices and protect the local economy, Mr. Kombat proposed amending the Petroleum Management Act to allow the purchase of Ghanaian crude oil using the Ghana cedi instead of the US dollar. He noted that Ghana currently spends roughly $60 billion annually on petroleum imports, and shifting to local currency transactions would reduce the heavy impact of dollar volatility on fuel costs. This move is intended to keep economic value onshore and improve the efficiency of the national petroleum supply chain while maintaining the refinery's operational independence. Beyond technical upgrades, the transformation agenda includes social infrastructure projects such as a new Specialist Hospital to improve emergency care and staff housing units to address long-standing accommodation challenges. These developments have drawn praise from observers like IMANI Africa founder Franklin Cudjoe, who credited the current administration for reviving a facility that had previously faced the prospect of being sold as scrap. The management team is now focused on a five-year strategic vision to restore trust with private partners and establish TOR as a sustainable pillar of Ghana’s industrial landscape.