The country’s refinery is set to ease its debt burden with an imminent debt write-off by the Finance Ministry, the company’s Managing Director of TOR, Edmond Kombat, has disclosed.

Edmond Kombat indicated that the government is set to write off $120 million of its outstanding $400 million debt as part of efforts to further ease the financial burden on the state-owned refinery.

Mr Kombat said TOR had already gone through an initial debt restructuring exercise that significantly reduced its historical liabilities.

“So we do have legacy debt on our books. When we did the first phase of the restructuring, we brought it down to about 400 and something million dollars,” he said on Tuesday, September 22.

According to him, the Ministry of Finance has now indicated that it intends to write off part of the amount owed to the government.

“Currently, the Minister of Finance is saying they are going to write off some of the debts that are owed to them. I think they are including this year’s budget. It’s about 120 million dollars. So if that is taken out, it will also further bring the debt down,” Mr Kombat stated.

How did TOR get into such debt?

TOR’s debt crisis stems from years of shutdowns, poor maintenance, political interference and mismanaged levies, leaving it with hundreds of millions of dollars owed to both private and state creditors.

TOR’s five major debt obligations

Mr Kombat explained that TOR’s outstanding legacy debt is made up of five major obligations owed to different creditors.

The creditors include private companies such as Sahara and BP, as well as state institutions including the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and the Volta River Authority (VRA).

He said negotiations with the private creditors could be more difficult, but management is exploring the possibility of securing discounts on the amounts owed.

For TOR, the proposed debt relief could ease some of the financial pressure on the refinery. However, management will still have to show that the refinery can operate profitably and meet its financial obligations going forward.

Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) resumed refining operations on December 19, 2025, after several years of shutdown. The refinery restarted at a capacity of about 28,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd), with plans to gradually ramp up production to between 45,000 and 85,000 bpsd over the next 18 months.

By the end of August 2026, TOR had already processed approximately 2.5 million barrels of crude oil, producing more than 382 million litres of petroleum products for the Ghanaian market. This marked a significant milestone in the refinery’s revival efforts.

A key achievement came on August 1, 2026, when TOR successfully commissioned the F‑61 Crude Distillation Unit furnace. This restored the refinery’s core processing capacity and signalled its ability to sustain operations after years of inactivity.

Meanwhile, the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) resumed refining operations on December 19, 2025, after several years of shutdown. The refinery restarted at a capacity of about 28,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd), with plans to gradually ramp up production to between 45,000 and 85,000 bpsd over the next 18 months.

By the end of August 2026, TOR had already processed approximately 2.5 million barrels of crude oil, producing more than 382 million litres of petroleum products for the Ghanaian market. This marked a significant milestone in the refinery’s revival efforts.