Last Saturday at Tema, President John Dramani Mahama did more than cut a ribbon.
He recommissioned the refurbished Crude Distillation Unit of the Tema Oil Refinery Limited (TOR) alongside the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit, a 120-tonne steam boiler, a new F-61 Crude Heater, and other upgraded facilities.
With that, Ghana’s only state-owned refinery returned to full operation.
It was also the day TOR officially received another one million barrels of Ghana’s Jubilee Medium Sweet crude.
That makes three such consignments since May.
The refinery has already processed two million barrels into gasoline, gas oil, aviation turbine kerosene, LPG, and premix fuel.
For years, TOR was the poster child for everything that could go wrong with a state-owned enterprise.
Production ground to a halt, debts mounted, and public confidence evaporated.
The prevailing prescription became all too familiar: sell it, lease it, or shut it down.
President Mahama revealed how close we came.
“If not for the bravery of the workers and their resistance, this edifice here would have been leased out for 15 years for $22 million.”
TOR’s revival disproves that theory. More importantly, it was achieved without a single cedi from the government of Ghana.
No bailout. The turnaround was driven by the management under Managing Director Edmond Kombat, the staff who guarded the plant’s knowledge through lean years, the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition, led by Dr John Jinapor, and strategic partners who believed the asset could work again.
This matters. It proves that with discipline, accountability, and leadership, public institutions can be turned around from within.
Selling is not the only answer to adversity.
The timing could not be more strategic.
For almost seven months, conflict in the Gulf involving Iran, Israel and America has disrupted global fuel supply chains.
In many countries, people are having to queue for fuel.
Because TOR is refining local crude, Ghanaians have hardly felt the effects.
Energy security is no longer an abstract policy term.
It is fuel at the pump when the world is volatile.
Beyond security, there is economics. Every barrel refined locally means less foreign exchange spent importing finished products.
Rehabilitation has already pushed processing capacity from about 28,000 barrels per stream day towards the original design of 45,000 barrels, with a pathway to 60,000.
The President has now directed the ministry and management to develop a plan to expand capacity to 100,000 barrels per stream day.
At that scale, TOR becomes a pillar for the government’s 24-hour Economy agenda and for making Ghana more competitive under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
More refining means more jobs, more value addition, and more retention of wealth here.
Reviving a refinery is one achievement; keeping it efficient, safe and profitable is quite another.
President Mahama was therefore right to caution both management and workers to remain focused on sustaining the gains made.
Equally important is the need to insulate the refinery from political interference.
The President's call for reforms in this regard is both timely and critical.
State-owned enterprises often fail not only because of inadequate funding, but also due to frequent shifts in policy direction and their use as vehicles for political patronage and indiscriminate employment.
TOR must be managed as the strategic national industrial asset it is, guided by sound corporate governance, operational efficiency and long-term commercial viability.
This is not the first time in recent times.
In December 2016, Ghana’s first Jubilee crude was delivered to TOR after it had processed seven million barrels.
That was a statement of intent to add value to our resources.
The years that followed tested that intent.
That is the lesson of TOR. Strategic assets are not liabilities to be dumped in a crisis.
They are investments to be nursed through the crisis.
The workers who resisted attempts to dispose of the refinery through a fire-sale lease deserve commendation.
Equally deserving of praise are the managers who engineered the turnaround without relying on government financial support.
But the real test begins now.
Can TOR sustain production, meet market demand, remain price-competitive and expand responsibly?
Can it evolve into the anchor refinery that supports Ghana's industrialisation, strengthens energy security, stabilises fuel supplies and trains the next generation of Ghanaian engineers?
Every young engineer employed at TOR represents more than another addition to the workforce; they embody hope for Ghana's industrial future.
The recommissioning of TOR is more than an engineering success; it is a statement about the kind of nation we aspire to be.
It affirms that Ghana must choose to rebuild rather than destroy.
Government must now match that spirit with policy consistency: secure crude supply and enforce reforms, and allow the management to run the refinery on commercial terms.
If we do, TOR will not only refine crude; it will refine our belief that Ghana can own, operate, and grow its strategic assets for the benefit of all Ghanaians.
The refinery is back. Let us keep it running.
