Minister of Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has called on members of the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) at the Tema Oil Refinery to put an end to the long-standing sabotage within company.
According to him, the internal sabotage among members is now destroying the progress of the once vibrant oil refinery and must therefore be addressed to ensure there is a future for TOR.
"I told these union members that, I remain committed in line with the vision of His Excellency the President at seeing the company [TOR] get back to work. I bemoaned the situation where the work being done in this direction goes down the drain because of the activities of internal saboteurs.
This sabotage, I said, will come to an end if there is a collective effort aimed at combating same, especially as we work to find a credible partner with a demonstrable track-record for the company"
The Energy Minister made this known in a Facebook post after he held meetings with the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) at TOR.
The meeting was to afford the minister the opportunity to address pertinent matters which have hampering efforts aimed at reviving the oil refinery which has not been operational for a few years.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Energy Policies and Research (INSTEPR) has said about $500 million was needed to revamp operations of the Tema Oil Refinery.
Since 2018, TOR has not been operational due to a lack of crude oil which serves as a raw material for the refinery. Apart from this, the refinery is also faced with other challenges like broken equipment, and piled debt, among others.
It would be recalled that the management of TOR in April 2022 sought approval from the Energy Ministry to engage some private sector players to revamp the oil refinery.
The green light on this development was however given on May 2, 2022.
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Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh