Ghana’s state-owned Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has received more than 5mn barrels of crude oil since May 2026, compared with no crude deliveries in 2024, as the company restores refining operations following years of equipment failures and financial difficulties.
Managing director Edmond Kombat said the renewed supply reflected improving confidence among crude suppliers and trading partners, according to Joy News reporting on October 26.
“TOR has maintained steady supply of crude oil for refinery operations reflecting the renewed confidence among suppliers and business partners, who are once again willing to do business with the refinery,” Kombat said during the government’s accountability briefing in Accra.
Deliveries since May have included Nigeria’s Bonga and Bonny Light crude, Côte d’Ivoire’s Baleine grade and Ghana’s Jubilee Medium Sweet crude, which arrived aboard the MT Apache on July 15.
Kombat said TOR paid for the Jubilee shipment in full, its first purchase of Jubilee crude in a decade.
The refinery also received approximately 950,000 barrels of Sankofa crude from the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) on September 25, strengthening links between Ghana’s offshore petroleum production and domestic refining.
The shipment, transported aboard the Sonangol Cazenga, was confirmed in a GNPC statement. GNPC said the cargo was supplied under a commercial arrangement between the two state institutions.
Accounts of the total number and size of crude shipments differ, although TOR management reported cumulative receipts exceeding 5mn barrels. The figure represents crude delivered rather than necessarily processed, and an independently reconciled total for refinery throughput was not available.
Refining resumes after prolonged shutdown
TOR restarted crude processing on December 19, 2025, following turnaround maintenance of its Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) and regulatory clearance from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
According to Ghana’s Information Services Department, the CDU had been idle since April 2021, while the Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (RFCC) had remained shut since 2019.
The rehabilitation programme ran from August to October 2025 and was financed from the refinery’s internally generated funds, with engineering work undertaken by TOR personnel.
President John Dramani Mahama formally commissioned the refurbished CDU on August 1, 2026, following the earlier operational restart.
Kombat said the refinery was processing approximately 28,000 barrels per stream day, below the existing CDU’s capacity range of 45,000–55,000 barrels per stream day.
Engineers from Verga Engineering are working with TOR’s technical team on the F-61 crude heater project, intended to restore higher utilisation of the existing processing capacity. The work was expected to be completed around the end of October.
Management has also outlined plans to expand refining capacity to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the medium term and eventually 200,000 bpd through further investment and additional processing facilities.
The proposed expansion programme remains subject to engineering, financing and implementation arrangements. The government aims to meet 70% of Ghana’s petroleum-product demand through domestic refining by 2028.
Fitch Solutions said in April that TOR’s restart would leave Ghana broadly oil-trade neutral or a modest net exporter in 2026, limiting the direct impact of global oil-price spikes on its trade balance.
Foreign-exchange gains support financial recovery
TOR’s recovery programme has also focused on restructuring debts, strengthening financial controls and restoring commercial relationships.
When the current management took office in 2025, the refinery had accumulated losses of approximately GHS10bn ($858mn at the October 26 exchange rate), debts of about $517mn and six years of outstanding audited accounts, Kombat said.
The company subsequently completed its financial audits for 2019–2024 and submitted its 2025 accounts, which showed a return to profitability after years of losses.
The State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) reported that TOR recorded a pre-tax profit of GHS1.24bn ($106mn) in 2025, its first in a decade.
However, the earnings recovery was substantially supported by financial and accounting gains rather than renewed crude processing alone.
According to SIGA’s assessment, TOR recorded foreign-exchange gains of approximately GHS1.3bn ($112mn) and GHS155mn ($13.3mn) in income from associates during 2025.
The foreign-exchange gains exceeded the reported pre-tax profit, while crude processing resumed only in December, limiting the contribution of renewed refining operations to the year’s financial results.
TOR’s commercial-operations revenue increased by more than 36% in 2025 compared with 2024, according to management, although the company’s activities also include petroleum storage and related services.
Kombat said efforts to reduce legacy obligations had strengthened TOR’s financial position. Separately, he reported that debt had declined from approximately $650mn to $300mn under a restructuring programme, although that comparison has not been reconciled with the $517mn historical debt figure disclosed for the start of the current management’s tenure.
The revival of domestic refining could help Ghana retain more value from offshore crude production and reduce reliance on imported petroleum products. TOR says about 40% of Burkina Faso’s fuel consumption is now supplied through Ghana, up from roughly 15% in January 2025.
Crude pricing remains a constraint for domestic refiners. In August, Mahama directed energy and finance officials to examine whether TOR and the privately owned Sentuo Oil Refinery could buy Ghanaian crude in cedis rather than dollars, after Sentuo complained that dollar-linked purchases were squeezing its margins. No change to the payment framework has been confirmed.
However, the refinery’s longer-term recovery will depend on sustained crude supplies, higher processing rates, commercial profitability from refining itself and the financing of planned capacity expansion.
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