By Xinhua News Agency Two Ghanaian state-run oil companies have been sparring for weeks over oil importation rights, in a turf war disturbing the West African country. Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) have reportedly intended to sign a contract on oil supply. But the news has irritated TOR workers who fear the document would make TOR a tolling agency for GNPC. Tema District Council of Labor on Tuesday staged a demonstration in solidarity with TOR workers, urging the government to abrogate the proposed contract, which TOR workers claimed was inspired by the personal interests of GNPC's leadership. TOR workers argued that the refinery must be allowed to lift its own oil since it stood to make between 7 million and 9 million U.S. dollars in profit. They declared that with GNPC importing crude, TOR could make just a paltry sum of 3 million dollars, which would not be enough to offset TOR's debts. They have also been upset for weeks by the removal of former TOR managing director Kwame Ampofo and the reported departure of Energy Minister Joe Oteng-Agyei. In response, the GNPC held a press conference on Wednesday in the port city of Tema, 24 km east of the capital, saying that TOR's attacks were unreasonable. "We, the workers of GNPC, have over the past few months observed with grave concern a calculated and well orchestrated attempt by workers of TOR to blame GNPC for problems the refinery was facing," a GNPC executive told the media. The company said the GNPC had been engaged in the business of lifting crude oil for the country since its establishment in 1985, while TOR had based its operations on tolling since its formation in the 1960s until 1998. Manager of GNPC's Marketing Operations, Abukari Sumaila, told Xinhua that TOR's argument that they need to continue lifting crude oil so as to solve their insolvency problems was flawed. "TOR had been lifting crude for the past 14 years, and all they did was to saddle the nation with a one-billion-dollar debt," he said. Sumaila added that the government realized toward the end of 2009 that GNPC had a better solvency standing than TOR and thus appointed GNPC to import crude for the country. Oil lifting in Ghana began in the 1960s, when the petroleum section of the Ghana Supply Commission was responsible for lifting crude oil. When GNPC was established in 1985, it was authorized to lift crude oil for Ghana. However, TOR regained its mandate for crude oil lifting in 1998, which it did till 2009. By the end of 2008, TOR was saddled with a debt of about 1 billion dollars. TOR argued that it was indebted as a result of the government's policy of subsidizing fuel prices, which did not allow it to operate a full cost recovery regime. The company also insisted that the government failed to honor its promise to reimburse TOR for the difference between the real cost of finished products and the subsidized rate at which they had been sold. The Ghanaian government paid more than half of TOR's debts to Ghana Commercial Bank last month. Source: iStockAnalyst