Ghana is positioning itself to strengthen energy security and ease pressure on fuel prices as local refining capacity expands and global crude oil prices decline, a technical adviser at the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition has said.
Dr. Yusif Sulemana said the combination of lower international crude prices and increased domestic refining capacity creates a favourable window for the country’s energy transition strategy.
He noted that the current market conditions, alongside Ghana’s push to refine more locally produced crude, are expected to support both energy security and price stability at the pump.
“With crude oil prices going down and we also strategizing to ensure that our locally produced crude oil is refined in our local refineries, it is going to guarantee us holistic energy security, the pressures at the pumps undoubtedly are going to be something that will be accommodating to the consumer,” he said in remarks reported by Citi Newsroom.
His comments follow the sod-cutting ceremony for Phase II of the Sentuo Oil Refinery expansion project in Tema, which will increase capacity from 40,000 barrels per day to 100,000 barrels per day.
Once completed, the facility is expected to process a significant share of Ghana’s daily petroleum demand, estimated at about 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent.
Dr. Sulemana said the government’s strategy is focused on ensuring that more locally produced crude is refined domestically rather than exported and re-imported as finished products.
He added that linking upstream production with downstream refining would improve value addition, create jobs and strengthen Ghana’s petroleum value chain.
According to him, earlier approaches treated production and refining as separate segments, limiting the country’s ability to maximise benefits from its oil resources.
The current policy direction, he said, seeks to integrate the value chain and create conditions for efficient local refining.
Sentuo Oil Refinery recently received about one million barrels of crude oil from the Jubilee Field for processing, marking a step toward deepening domestic refining capacity.
With global prices easing and refinery capacity expanding, Ghana is seeking to position itself more firmly within the oil value chain, with energy security emerging as a central policy objective.
