TOR GOES BIG: Tema Oil Refinery Targets Sahel Fuel Market Expansion

The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) is implementing an ambitious turnaround strategy to become a major supplier of petroleum products to the landlocked Sahelian countries, leveraging Ghana’s safe transit corridor and the region’s growing demand.

Key Points:

  • TOR’s managing director, Edmund Kombat, states the refinery is positioning itself to become a major supplier of petroleum products to the Sahel region
  • The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) is pursuing an ambitious turnaround strategy to serve both Ghana and the wider West African markets.
  • Growing demand from landlocked Sahelian countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Chad presents a significant commercial opportunity for TOR.
  • Ghana offers the safest, most peaceful, and most reliable transit corridor for crude fuel exports into the Sahel region compared to other coastal countries.
  • Sonabhy, a company from one of these landlocked countries, has already increased its uptake of petroleum products from Ghana from 16% to 37% in 2024.
  • TOR aims to further strengthen its relationship with Sonabhy and other Sahelian countries to eventually supply 100% of their petroleum product needs.
  • The Sahelian countries collectively consume approximately 3.5 million metric tons of petroleum products annually.
  • Supplying this entire demand from Ghana would create significant business opportunities and jobs for the country.
  • This strategy will truly position TOR and Ghana as a petroleum hub for the West African subregion.