The Institute for Energy Security(IES) has called on management of the Tema Oil Refinery(TOR), the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the Ministry of Energy and the government to as a matter of urgency launch an investigation into Thursday’s explosion at TOR.
A statement issued by the IES and signed by the Principal Research Analyst, Richmond Rockson said the key actors must “unravel the cause of blow-up, and take steps to restore capacity while preserving the remaining production capacity.”
The statement adds “Anything short of these could jeopardize the country’s fuel security, threaten jobs, push back the gains made so far by TOR, turn the refinery to a storage terminal again, and impact negativity on the country’s socio-economic growth.”
Although the cause of explosion is not immediately known, the IES is of the view that the non-adherence to safety protocol and standard operating procedures, lack of adequate supervision, inexperience operating and production management personnel and complacency; are many of the factors that could result in such an incident, hence a call on management to probe the unfortunate incident to avert any threats of fuel security.
A furnace at the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) exploded yesterday, forcing the management of the refinery to shut down the CDU.
