Bright Adongo,
chairman of the Senior Staff Union of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), has
reiterated that leasing the refinery to Torentco Asset Management Group for $22
million for 6 years will get the refinery back on its feet.
Speaking in an
interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM in Accra on
Wednesday, Adongo said that not leasing the refinery as planned could lead to
the total collapse of the refinery.
“The benefit is
enormous, security wise, economic wise and it makes sense that you are keeping
jobs and all that. If you get a running refinery and there are wars somewhere
and you cannot get the finished product, you can bring your crude oil from the
fields, process and transform it to get the economy running,” he added.
The Union
Chairman revealed that the refinery was seriously challenged as it was among
others highly indebted to utilities, had only few product storages (20 out of
59) and had not increased salaries of workers for the past five years.
Responding to
the query on what happens if the company ran down the refinery, Mr Adongo
emphatically stated that he believed no private businessman would make an
investment with the aim to see it go down.
“If they are to
run the plant down definitely then the plant cannot deliver as it has to. If
you are a private man, your intention is to fix those items that need to be
fixed. So obviously I don’t see a private man who would want to take over a
facility and make a significant investment, and he will want to break the plant
down,” he added.
The Senior Staff
Union of TOR has already backed the government’s decision to lease the refinery
to Torentco Asset Management.
The union
believes that leasing TOR would help revamp and reposition the company for
sustainable operations.
The union also
addressed concerns raised by analysts regarding the lease agreement,
emphasizing the urgent need to restore TOR’s functionality. They cited years of
political interference, mismanagement, and insufficient investment as
contributing factors to its decline.
In its
statement, the union stated, “It is on the basis of this, that we the Senior
Staff Workers Union of TOR (PMSU of UNICOF) welcome the decision by the board
and the government to engage a strategic partner to revamp the refinery and
bring it back to operation to contribute to fuel security in the country and
stabilisation of the Ghana Cedi.”
The lease of the
TOR has attracted great national concern after some analysts raised issues
concerning the terms of the agreement.
The refinery
will be leased to Torentco Asset Management Group for $22 million for 6 years
and is expected to refine up to 8 million barrels annually.
The group will
pay $1 million as annual rent and an additional rent amount of $1.067 million
per month.
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