The Minister of State at the Ministry of Energy, Hon. Herbert Krapa, yesterday paid a working visit to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and the Sentuo Oil Refinery to acquaint himself with the two organisations’ operations in his first official visit since assuming the role recently.
At TOR, the Minister of State, who was accompanied by senior officials from the Ministry of Energy and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), regulators of the petroleum downstream sector, met with the Managing Director, Mr. Kofi Mocumbi Tagoe and his management team to receive briefings on the company’s situation and also to discuss government’s perspective.
In his remarks, he noted that the fact of TOR being the first institution within the energy sector that he was visiting spoke volumes about the importance that the President attached to the need for the refinery to work again, and indicated that need for all hands to get on board in this direction. “TOR is a strategic national asset and urgently needs a strategic partner to get back on its feet”, he noted.
Speaking to journalists after an extensive tour of the facility and its installations, Hon. Krapa announced that together with the management of TOR, a three-month timeline had been agreed for the resumption of the plant, and further announced government’s plan to immediately revive TOR’s testing laboratory for revenue generation.
At Sentuo Oil Refinery, also in Tema, the Minister of State and his team held a brief meeting with company chairman Mr. Xu Ningquan and his management team, where he received briefings on the company’s profile and also undertook a tour of its facilities.
In his remarks, he welcomed the company’s decision to invest in Ghana and charged both TOR and Sentuo to see each other as partners, and to collaborate for the growth of both refineries.
