The Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Edmond Kombat, has dismissed claims that the refinery cannot refine Ghanaian crude, describing such claims as economic propaganda.
Addressing a press briefing in Accra on Monday, October 26, 2026, Kombat said arguments that TOR lacks capacity to process local crude were peddled by persons who did not want state institutions to function.
“In the past, you would have heard that TOR cannot refine Ghanaian crude and all of it. It was just economic propaganda by people who didn’t want our state institutions to run,” he said.
He explained that crude oil across the Equatorial basin from Nigeria through Ivory Coast to Ghana is the same medium sweet crude with medium density and low sulfur content.
“All the Equatorial basin, between Nigeria all the way through Ivory Coast, has the same crude, they are medium sweet crude. So, we [TOR] refine Nigerian crude, we refine Ivorian crude, how can we refine Nigerian crude, Ivorian crude but cannot refine Ghanaian crude,” he questioned.
Kombat displayed products TOR currently refines, including Sankofa crude from the Western Region, which he described as one of the best, naphtha from Sankofa, Jubilee crude, Residual Fuel Oil (RFO) for power plants, heavy gasoil (diesel), premix for fisherfolk and Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK).
He said TOR produces 100 per cent of premix for about three million fisherfolk from Axim to Keta and has increased quantities fivefold to ensure constant availability.
“Refining Ghanaian crude in Ghana keeps value onshore. It fulfills the value addition vision of the President for Ghana,” he said at the Government Accountability Series at the Jubilee House on Monday, October 26, 2026.
He disclosed that since May 2026, TOR has received four one-million-barrel cargoes – Bonga, Baleine, Bonny Light and on July 15, Ghana’s Jubilee Medium Sweet crude aboard MT Apache.
Fuel price stability possible if TOR buys crude in cedis, not dollars – TOR MD
