The Minister of Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has disclosed that some $2.5 million worth of crude condensate has gone missing at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
According to the minister, the ministry secured a deal for the company in the premix sector but $2.5 million has been lost and left unaccounted for.
“I gave TOR a new business opportunity in the premix fuel market that all the condensate from Ghana Gas should be used for blending premix fuel. The last time I heard, Over 2.5 million dollars worth of condensate had gone missing from TOR. If we all want TOR working, and we don’t want another ECG in TOR, [we should do the right thing else] it will break the back of government”.
“TOR has over $500 million worth of debt sitting on its books and go and look at how the debt is accumulated– people bring their crude to refine and then they record crude losses.”
The Minister said he established a committee that worked for 8 months to in attempt to reconcile TOR losses but has not made any headway.
“You don’t pay taxes for it to go down the drain. You pay taxes for an efficient running of government. Government, I can tell you, is doing so much work to bring TOR to work. There are proposals lying up in TOR, SIGA, Attorney General, and Finance Ministry all having a look. Getting it right is a difficult proposition we are working on. And we will work diligently to get Ghanaians what is good,” the Energy Minister added.
His comment follows an appeal by workers to government to revive the refinery.