The Managing Director (MD) of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Edmond Kombat, has revealed that the refinery is operating a partial 24-hour service to ensure it meets its production target. 

Mr Kombat said that instead of closing at 20:00 hours, they had extended their service to between 23:00 hours and sometimes even 01:00 hours.

 He said that because of the measures put in place at the refinery, its storage was currently full, as it ensured that the era of customers’ fuel not being accounted for was over, and that presently what was delivered there for storage was precisely what the clients received.

The MD said that even though there had been several reports that the refinery should be scrapped as it was a waste of taxpayers’ money and should therefore be left to rot, they were gradually turning the situation around.

Mr Kombat said “I’m happy to report that there has been a turnaround in the refinery’s fortunes,” explaining that they were currently relying on internally generated funds and the expertise of the staff to turn the place around.

He also stated that they had conducted a fishbone analysis of the refinery’s assets and liabilities to understand potential risks, and had also done stakeholder mapping to identify which stakeholders could help them solve the issues.

He announced that management was working on a new furnace to connect to help the refinery move to 45,000 barrels per stream per day (bpsd) capacity.

Mr Kombat stated, “You have seen the work that is being done. And in the coming days, you will see we’ve done all the test runs, all the flashing; everything is fine. In the coming days, everything being equal, you will see the flare-up.”

He further stated that this would run for a while and stabilise, saying there had been a lot of discipline and sleepless nights to achieve some turnaround.

“There are times, at 01:00 a.m., we are all there to make sure that things that ought to be done are done. So, TOR has turned the tide, and by the grace of God, you will see what the refinery will become.”

The TOR MD acknowledged that the workers were worried that their future was not inevitable, stating that the unions did a great job by resisting several attempts to hand over their furnace to private hands.