The revival of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has shed light on years of severe administrative decay and financial malpractice, marking a sharp transition from a near fire-sale of national assets to an ambitious roadmap.
This new roadmap, according to the Managing Director of TOR, Edmond Kombat, is targeting a processing capacity of 200,000 barrels per day.
In an official briefing delivered in October 2026, the MD emphasized that the refinery was on the brink of being leased or sold off for just $21 million prior to the May 2025 management transition.
The briefing outlined a period of deep operational paralysis between 2019 and 2024. The MD revealed that TOR had accumulated losses of about GH¢10 billion, debts of $517 million, and negative equity of GH¢7.6 billion.
Moreover, its core operational units, the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) and the Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) unit, lay idle for years, leaving 18 of its 59 storage tanks out of service.
In addition, the governance breakdown was equally severe. TOR went six consecutive years (2019–2024) without filing audited financial statements. Statutory debts ballooned, including GH¢200 million owed to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), GH¢20 million to SSNIT, and GH¢190 million in unpaid obligations to staff provident funds and retirees.
To cover payroll, previous management routinely sold off millions of dollars of third-party petroleum products belonging to private clients without their knowledge or consent.
However, under President John Dramani Mahama’s RESET Agenda, the current management launched a comprehensive overhaul.
By April 2026, TOR cleared its six-year accounting backlog by submitting seven audited annual reports to the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) and convening its 18th Annual General Meeting.
These reforms earned TOR second place among all public institutions on the inaugural Public Financial Management (PFM) Compliance League Table.
To secure long-term commercial viability, the Ministry of Finance is evaluating a proposal to write off or convert $120 million of TOR’s legacy debt into government equity. On the plant floor, engineers from Verga Engineering are working alongside TOR’s technical staff to increase processing throughput from 28,000 bpsd to between 45,000 and 55,000 bpsd.
Looking ahead, a presidential directive has established an aggressive multi-stage expansion blueprint Edmond Kombat further revealed that the government plans target an initial expansion to 100,000 bpsd, designed to meet 70% of Ghana’s national fuel demand by 2028.
The ultimate strategic vision entails a brownfield expansion to 85,000 bpsd paired with a new 115,000 bpsd greenfield refinery and petrochemical plant, bringing TOR’s total refining capacity to 200,000 barrels per stream day.
