Edmund Kombat, the acting Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), has said the company that has remained inactive for the past four years has now accumulated a total debt of US$517 million.
The debt was, which was the situation as of December 2024, was inherited by the current management, which according to Kombat, is being investigated.
During an engagement with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Energy at Senchi on Sunday, June 22, 2025, Mr Kombat said “we are doing that verification and once we do that verification and authentication of what we have been able to bring down, that will be communicated publicly.”
He disclosed that the sum was triggered by trade debts, third parties and also legacy debts where crude was supplied but was not paid.
“There were times that the Ministry of Finance in the past had given some funds to TOR and some of it, for example, were grants and then when they entered into the agreement with the IMF, the IMF asked them to reclassify it as debt.
“So, those things have accumulated to that amount of money and I think the last time TOR traded, some of the trades were not hedged,” he said.
Mr Kombat and officials of TOR had appeared before the 17-member committee, chaired by Emmanuel Kwesi Bedzrah, to brief them on the programme and work plan of TOR this year as well as the challenges it faced.
The acting TOR MD averred that his administration will ensure the exposure which led to the numerous debts will not be repeated. “But we are here to make sure that that is stopped and is not repeated.”
As part of President Mahama’s vision to revive the economy is to revamp the Refinery, according to Kombat.
The Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) had not been operated since 2019, and since 2021 the crude distillation unit had also not run which his administration has assessed to determine their readiness and possibility of bringing it back.
“After assessing the plant, we realised that the plant was in good shape and that with a few technical works we could get the plant back and that is what we have been seriously working on.”
He pointed out that the refinery plant had been out of shape as a result of debt that had accumulated over the years.
“We have tried to revalidate some of the debts, do renegotiation and reconciliation and as a result, we have worked on it and some of the numbers are coming down and at the appropriate time we will ensure that the figures are out,” he assured.
He also disclosed that the Refinery had not been audited for the past six years, indicating that they are bring external auditors to look at their accounts and make the findings of the entire six years public.
“Since 2019, TOR has not had an audited account and one of the things that we decided to do was to focus on that and bring external auditors. And we are hoping that by the end of next month, all six years will be ready,” he said.
To turn the fortunes of the refinery around, he said steps had been taken do change management by re-orienting the staff to refocus them on performance, retool them and give them all the support they needed.
On the current stage of the company, he said management had been able to ringfence and build up some internally generated funds towards critical maintenance that was required to bring the refinery back.
Kombat also revealed that government has cleared some of debt with the Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA) receivables.
“Some of it has been used to pay some of the debts on behalf of TOR and we are appreciative of government for that. But there is still some outstanding and we are doing reconciliation with the Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Finance to get those outstanding fees to ensure that the President’s vision of bringing the refinery back is achieved,” he said.
He added that: “I can confidently tell you that before the year ends, TOR will be back”.
