DMEA: Refined focus for Ghana and Uganda

In DMEA this week we look at refining updates from Ghana and Uganda.

The Ghanaian government is seeking strategic partners willing to provide the capital required to rehabilitate its dilapidated state-owned Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).

Minister for Public Enterprises Joshua Cudjoe made the announcement while speaking to local media outlet Joy News, saying that investors in the facility would be expected to provide funds for the extensive required repair work.

“Given the revenue constraints that the state has at the moment and capitalisation of TOR to enable it to turn around, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, would let you know and I support that we won’t use tax money to go and fix it,” he said.

The 45,000 barrel per day (bpd) facility has been plagued by issues since an explosion at its distillation unit in early 2017, and was closed completely between July 2020 and January 2021. Outages have been experienced at the crude distillation and fluid catalytic cracking units, while only one of the CDU’s furnaces is currently operational, giving the 56-year-old facility an effective throughput capacity of 30,000 bpd.

Meanwhile, Uganda’s energy minister held talks this week with the consortium developing the country’s first oil refinery, days after a final investment decision (FID) was taken on the project to develop the larger of the oilfields that will provide its feedstock.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Ruth Nankabirwa made a visit to Italy this week to discuss the status of the 60,000 bpd refinery at Kabale in Hoima district with the Albertine Graben Refinery Consortium (AGRC). The group holds a 60% share in the $4bn refinery project, with the remainder held by the Uganda National Oil Co. (UNOC) through its Uganda Refinery Holding Co. (URHC) subsidiary.

AGRC is comprised of US-based BakerHughes GE, Italy’s Saipem and Mauritian-registered Yaatra Africa and Lionworks Group. “I am delighted [to] work with AGRC, which started with the signing of the project framework agreement (PFA) for [the] refinery project on April 10, 2018,” Nankabirwa said. “The refinery FID in the amended PFA was expected within 41 months from effective date of the agreement, which falls on February 7, 2022,” she added.