Campaign to get TOR recapitalised underway
A campaign aimed at exerting pressure on the government to recapitalise the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) was launched in Tema yesterday by the Tema District Council of Labour (TDCL).
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The campaign, dubbed, “Saving Tema Oil Refinery”, will be led by activism programmes aimed at ensuring that the government redeems its promise to recapitalise the refinery.
The Secretary General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Kofi Asamoah, who performed the official launch, said Ghana could not be allowed to go the Nigerian way, where the country produced crude oil but depended heavily on imported finished petroleum products.
The government, in 2011, promised the refinery $67 million to enable its managers to conduct a plant stabilisation and profit enhancement programme but it has reneged on its promise after it released an initial $37 million to revamp the facility.
“We cannot sit down, as workers, with folded arms, while this strategic asset is turned into a holding depot for bulk oil distribution companies (BDCs) to enable private individuals to profit from the Ghanaian workers’ poverty,” Mr Asamoah said.
The launch, under the auspices of the TDCL, also saw workers drawn from the Chemical Workers Union and the Maritime and Dock Workers Union (MDU) staging a mini protest to press home their demand.
They accused the government of deliberately crippling the operations of the refinery, so that it could turn round under the cloak of non-profitability to sell it off.
Timeline
“Going by recent events and the lack of interest in the refinery’s affairs by the sole shareholder, the next three to five years may see TOR being shut down completely, with the entire working population being made redundant,” Mr Asamoah contended.
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That, he said, would worsen the already hard hit Ghanaian who would be forced to pay more for petroleum and transport fares.
TOR unionised staff
The Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of TOR, Mr Daniel Fugar, expressed worry that though TOR could refine products to meet market demand, policies and programmes instituted by the government in the downstream petroleum sector were turning the refinery into a storage facility to facilitate the activities of BDCs.
He emphasised that while the government was propagating the need for Ghanaians to patronise made-in-Ghana products, it was at the same time making a strong case for BDCs to flourish.
He also found it intriguing that the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) could provide oil trading licences to most BDCs, some of whom did not have the required facilities to operate.
The NPA, he said, had, over the period, also set up unrealistic tariffs for TOR, regardless of its operational cost.
MDU
The General Secretary of the MDU, Mr Owusu Koranteng, who expressed disappointment with Parliament for passing the Atuabo Free Port Development Bill which would empower a private entity to develop the facility, appealed to the President not to sign the bill into law.
Writer’s email: della.russel@graphic.com.gh