The management of New Alpha Refinery-Ghana, a South African based company with a subsidiary in Ghana is undertaking feasibility studies to establish a tank farm and second refinery in Ghana. The refinery will be located in the Western Region in addition to the establishment of a power-generation plant using gas turbines. Mr Merlyn Julie, Executive Chairman of New Alpha Refinery Ghana, speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, said management was equipping itself to train personnel for the oil and gas industry. “We envisage providing jobs for about 4,800 to 5,000 people,” he added. Mr Julie said management was negotiating with the Ministry of Energy and other stakeholders as well as the landowners to fast track the proposal and conduct technical audit to enable them to use Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) as module for the training. “The project, which comes with import and export facilities; a tank farm and a gas turbine, will have the capacity to process 200,000 barrels of crude per day. “This will be more than quadruple the capacity of TOR whose output is about 45,000 barrels per day,” he added. Mr Julie said the company would supply neighbouring countries with refined products such as gasoline, jet-fuel adding “We are delighted with Ghana for her stability and profitability as an investment destination.” On the need for an additional refinery, Mr Julie said this was necessary because of Ghana’s rising consumption of petroleum products of about three billion litres annually compared to TOR’s capacity of 45,000 bpd-which was inadequate to keep up with the trend despite imports of refined products from Europe to augment its output. “Construction of an additional refinery is deemed more than just welcome news: it will improve local manpower capacity for the hydrocarbon industry and create jobs,” Mr Julie said. He explained that European refineries had been operating at all time high, with nearly 30 cargoes traversing the Sub-Saharan African shores on monthly basis, with Nigeria alone receiving about 10 of these cargoes. “Ghana’s ability to export refined products to neighbouring countries will be a strategic economic venture,” he added. The company has initiated a feedstock agreement with Nigeria and Mali to buy feedstock (crude oil) and set up an off-take agreement in return to sell the refined products to them. According to project consultants in South Africa, all layouts and technical issues are being concluded and confident of a successful implementation.Source: GNA