The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) says it has put its processing plants in safe mode as a result of Sunday’s heavy downpour. The heavy downpour at the weekend caused floods at the Refinery’s refined products pump station, resulting in the suspension of loading operations. Floods also caused the western part of its fence wall to collapse. A statement by TOR says as a pre-emptive measure, engineers on duty put the processing units, which were running, into safe mode to avert damage to the plants and equipment. Public Relations Manager at the Refinery, Mrs Aba Lokko, told Myjoyonline.com that TOR expects to return to full operations by Thursday, pending which time the supply of Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK), Fuel Oil and Premix to the market will be temporarily affected for the next two days - June 22-23, 2010. She however assured that the refinery is delivering petrol and diesel to the market and also expects other bulk suppliers to continue delivering products. “Even as we speak, we have today supplied LPG to the market,” explaining engineers and technicians were working tirelessly to restore operations at the pump house. She said the refinery’s Crude Distillation unit (CDU) has been restarted and the Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) unit will be back on stream by Sunday, June 27, 2010. She said the temporary shutdown will not affect the availability of products on the market and advised against panic buying, explaining that the management of TOR had the situation under control. Story by Myjoyonline.com/Ghana