Ghana’s push to refine its own crude at home rests on a financial architecture that does not yet exist, former Power Minister Dr. Kwabena Donkor has warned, saying the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) must secure ironclad payment instruments before supplying a single barrel to domestic refineries.
The warning carries added urgency following a Ministry of Energy disclosure this week that the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) cannot process crude from Ghana’s flagship Jubilee oil field without major equipment upgrades, including a diesel hydrotreater and an isomerisation unit. The ministry confirmed that TOR’s current configuration is incompatible with Jubilee crude characteristics, meaning the facility resumed operations in December 2025 processing imported crude rather than domestically produced oil.
Dr. Donkor, speaking in an interview with The High Street Journal, said the payment failure that plagued an earlier GNPC-TOR crude supply arrangement must not be repeated. He said GNPC allocated approximately two million barrels of its crude share to TOR under that arrangement, but payment delays left the amounts outstanding on GNPC’s books for years. “Will you do that again?” he asked.
He called on any domestic refinery seeking GNPC crude, whether TOR or the Sentuo Oil Refinery, to demonstrate financial capacity upfront through letters of credit, bank guarantees, or equivalent secure payment instruments. “They must have the financial instruments to assure GNPC that each share of production and the government share that GNPC looks after will be processed and paid for,” he said.
The Sentuo Oil Refinery is currently supplying approximately 30 percent of Ghana’s petroleum requirements, while TOR is operational at around 28,000 barrels per day. Together the two facilities cover close to 40 percent of national demand, with the remaining 60 percent supplied through imports. Sentuo, unlike TOR, is technically configured to process Ghanaian crude grades including the Jubilee, Tweneboa Enyenra Ntomme (TEN), and Sankofa blends.
Dr. Donkor said the long-term goal of linking Ghana’s upstream production to domestic refining capacity is strategically sound and would reduce freight and transportation costs compared to the current model of exporting crude and reimporting refined products. However, he stressed that cost savings will only materialise if the financial architecture matches the ambition.
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has estimated that achieving full combined capacity at Sentuo and TOR could meet roughly half of Ghana’s fuel demand, a development that would ease pressure on Ghana’s foreign exchange reserves and reduce exposure to import supply disruptions.
