Ghana is moving from years of advocacy to concrete action on strategic petroleum reserves, with the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) rehabilitating five dormant crude storage tanks and planning to construct additional ones as part of a national energy resilience drive.
TOR Managing Director Edmond Kombat made the disclosure during a visit by Fellows of the Africa Extractives Media Fellowship (AEMF) to the refinery, noting that geopolitical tensions in the Middle East had directly disrupted planned crude deliveries to the refinery, temporarily halting production, with two vessels that were en route from Egypt abruptly diverted following the outbreak of hostilities.
Kombat said the vulnerability exposed by that disruption has given fresh urgency to the case for strategic storage. “The best stock to invest is crude, because crude, you can store crude for a hundred years and you still get it the way it is,” he told the AEMF fellows, explaining that unlike refined fuels, crude oil can be held for extended periods without deterioration, making it an ideal buffer asset.
He confirmed that technical teams have already been assigned to execute the expansion. “The five crude tanks that were out are being brought back. The technical team has been given a responsibility. They’ve designed, we’re going to build additional storage tanks to make sure that we’re able to store more,” he said.
Ghana currently holds approximately five weeks of strategic fuel stocks, according to Energy Minister Dr. John Abdulai Jinapor, a buffer that analysts describe as insufficient protection if supply disruptions persist.
The broader context reinforces the urgency. Major economies, particularly members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have in recent years released hundreds of millions of barrels from their strategic reserves to stabilise global markets during crises. Without comparable stocks, Ghana has historically been forced to buy at peak prices during periods of supply stress, with those costs quickly transmitted to consumers through higher fuel prices and transport fares.
Ghana’s annual petroleum import bill is estimated at around $10.2 billion, and analysts project that a fully operational TOR, supplying between 45 and 60 percent of national demand, could potentially save the country up to $400 million per month in import costs.
Kombat has staked his leadership on personal oversight of the refinery’s transformation, saying he physically enters tanks himself rather than relying on secondhand reports, and that the commitment is about ensuring “whatever we say we are doing, indeed, we are actually doing it.”
