A BRIEF HISTORY (TOR)

Tema oil Refinery (TOR) Limited is the first refinery in Ghana. It is authorized by its
regulatory to process crude oil and market petroleum products. The refinery is situated in
Tema about 24 kilometers east of the capital Accra. We have the second private owned
refinery known as Petron Gas Oil also in Tema.
It was originally named the Ghanaian Italian Petroleum (GHAIP) Company and
incorporated as a private Limited Liability Company under the Companies Ordinance (Cap
193) on December 12,1960.
It was 100% owned by ENI Group (Ente Nationalie Indrocarburi) of Italy. The
government of Ghana bought all the shares of GHAIP in April 1977 and became sole
shareholder. In 1990, the name was changed to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
TORs refinery plant was designed by AGIP Petroli and constructed by Snam Progelti both of
Italy.
The refinery was commissioned in 1963 as a hydro slumming plant with an initial
capacity of 28,000 barrels per stream day.
It was to process various light and low sulphure crude oils, such as Bony Light and
Brass River from Nigeria, and Palanca Blend from Angola.
In 1997, as part of the first phase of TORS expansion and modernization program,
the crude distillation Unit (CDU) was revamped to 45,000 barrels per stream day.
In 2002, as the second phase of the expansion and modernization program, a Residue
Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) unit of capacity 14,000 barrels per stream day was
commissioned.
The RFCC was to convert the low valued residual fuel oil, from the CDU into high
valued products of LPG and gasoline.
Prior to the commencement of crude oil processing at Tema Oil Refinery (TOR),
Ghana relied on imported refined petroleum products distributed by the local branches of
multinational oil companies, such as Shell, Texaco, British Petroleum, Mobil and Total.
These foreign Petroleum companies controlled the importation and sale of petroleum
products and were free to set up their own products prices until TOR started crude oil
processing in 1963 which limited the importation of petroleum products.
The local branches of the foreign oil companies were given the responsibility by the
government to import the crude oil required by TOR for refinery and blending into finished
products.
The Ministry of Energy was regulating the sector before the establishment of the
Energy Commission in 1997, by Act of Parliament (Act 541).

The downstream sector was dominated by multinational OMCs with Ghana Oil
Marketing Company (GOIL) being the only indigenous OMC.
There have been major increased in Ghanaian owned companies in the downstream
sector from the establishment of the Energy Commission to the National Petroleum Authority.
In 2001 there were 14 OMCs operating in the country, with 6 of them being
multinational companies, namely Mobil, Shell, Total, Elf, Oando and Engen.
These multinational companies controlled 72% of the total market share of petroleum
products marketed and distributed while the indigenous companies made up the remaining
28%.