Executive Director of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah, has expressed satisfaction with the resumption of operations at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), saying it signals the return of leadership in Ghana.
According to him, Ghana now has leadership capable of taking decisive action in the energy sector.
The Tema Oil Refinery has officially resumed crude oil refining operations after being dormant for about six years.
Speaking on Joy News, monitored by NewsDesksGH on December 29, Duncan Amoah said TOR was originally intended to be at the centre of Ghana’s industrialisation drive.
“Kwame Nkrumah undertook a radical industrialisation agenda which essentially sought to achieve what we call import substitution, and TOR was to be at the very heart of it.”
He said the refinery’s decline reflected deeper failures in Ghana’s economic management over the years.
“The failure of TOR has been one of the fundamental symptoms of how we failed as people to move the economy forward subsequent to our economic liberalisation.”
According to him, persistent political interference and financial challenges prevented the refinery from operating sustainably.
“Over the years because of political interference in terms of pricing, because of the unsustainable debt that TOR has over the years incurred, because of our inability to find a way of sustaining flow of crude to TOR, TOR has been going through some start-stop-start-stop.”
Duncan Amoah praised President John Dramani Mahama for finding ways to resolve these longstanding challenges.
“His Excellency President Mahama found a solution to these problems.”
He was, however, critical of the previous administration, accusing it of lacking commitment to sustaining the refinery.
“Unfortunately when we gave the reins of government to his Excellency Nana Addo, they showed a fundamental lack of commitment.”
Commending the current government’s approach, the COPEC Executive Director said the resumption of operations at TOR is a key indicator of the administration’s reset agenda.
“I want to applaud this government. When you’re talking about reset, the biggest pointer in terms of where this reset agenda is going is in this TOR news. It’s an example of whether or not really there is a reset.”
He noted that just 11 months after the Mahama-led government took office, the refinery has been restored.
“Right now I’m convinced that we have leadership. We didn’t have leadership from 2017 to 2024. We had a pretence of leadership.”
On December 19, 2025, the Crude Distillation Unit began processing crude oil, with refined product streams entering storage for the first time in several years, marking a major operational milestone for the refinery.
