Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), the country’s refinery, has completed 80% of the reconstruction work on its crude oil furnace, which exploded in January 2017, forcing it to cut production.
Due to the explosion, TOR, Ghana’s only refinery, which has a capacity of 45,000 barrels per stream day, is only producing 26,000 barrels.
Mrs Sika Ramatu Lawson, a Project Electrical Engineer at TOR’s Department of Electrical Engineer, announced this at the Ghana News Agency’s eleventh Stakeholders Engagement, where she led a three-member team of technical ladies in a presentation on the prospects of women in the oil refinery sector.
Mrs Lawson stated that TOR hoped to begin full operation by the end of June, when the furnace work would be completed.
She explained that TOR had two plants, one with the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) and the other with the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC), and that once the furnace was installed, the plants would be able to produce at full capacity sooner.
We have two major plants, the CDU and the RFCC major plants, without which we cannot operate. Currently, installations are nearly 80% complete to replace the equipment that exploded, with which we can return to doing 45,000 barrels per stream day for the CDU and 14,000 barrels per stream day for the RFCC plant.
She explained that the refinery’s core business was to refine crude oil that it either acquired or for third parties so that it could serve the Ghanaian market, the sub-region, and beyond by marketing the finished products to Bulk Distribution Companies (BDCs) and Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
She said that the refinery, which was a purely engineering-oriented field of work, was predominantly male-dominated because fewer women studied and worked in that area.
She described the female population ratio at TOR as “extremely encouraging” in the past compared to now, explaining that there was once only one female engineer among a large group of men.
“It’s worth noting that we currently have several brave ladies working in TOR as instrument/electrical technicians and engineers, process technicians, engineers, and chemists, all of whom use modern technology in various capacities.”
“Laboratory technicians, as well as administrators, finance, procurement, insurance professionals, lawyers, and health personnel, all play critical roles in the delivery of the process,” she continued.
Mrs Lawson was accompanied by Ms Phillipa Joy Essien, TOR’s Learning and Development Officer, and Miss Matilda Adane Okrah, TOR’s Maintenance Planner.
