Finance Ministry to write off about $120m of Tema Oil Refinery debt, TOR chief says

Pinned summary · as of 07:05

The Ministry of Finance intends to cancel roughly US$120 million of the debt owed by the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), the refinery's managing director, Edmond Kombat, told Parliament's Energy Committee. He spoke during the committee's working visit to the plant, where he also described the creditors still waiting to be paid.

What we know

• Mr Kombat disclosed that around US$120 million of TOR's debt is due to be cancelled by the Ministry of Finance, and said the ministry means to reflect this in the 2026 budget. “It’s about $120 million,” he said.
• After an earlier restructuring, TOR's remaining legacy obligations stand at roughly US$400 million, according to Mr Kombat.
• Sahara and BP were among the private creditors the managing director listed, and he added that talks are under way to try to get reductions in the sums owed to them.
• Mr Kombat said the refinery has debts to two state bodies as well: GNPC, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, and the VRA, the Volta River Authority. He asked the Energy Committee to help cancel those balances against each other, since both are public bodies.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  The Vaultz News noted that the US$120 million cancellation so far amounts to an intention voiced by refinery management, with no finished write-off and no published Ministry of Finance statement behind it. It added that the ministry has yet to spell out publicly how the measure would be treated in the budget.
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  The Vaultz News reported that TOR earned GH₵1.24 billion after tax in 2025, which it described as the refinery's first profitable year since 2016. It also relayed a Ghana News Agency report that management credited favourable exchange-rate movements, better operations and ongoing restructuring; neither point has been confirmed elsewhere.
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  According to The Vaultz News, the refinery's pitch to investors features an increase in refining capacity plus a suggested modular plant with a rating of 100,000 barrels per stream day. This has not been reported by other publications.

Why it matters for Ghana

TOR is a state-linked refinery, so the size of its debts and how they are settled bear on public finances and on the wider fuel sector that Ghanaian motorists and businesses depend on. Cancelling government-held debt, and netting off balances between public bodies such as GNPC and VRA, would ease the refinery's burden, but the ministry has not yet set out the details. Any deal with private creditors like Sahara and BP will also shape whether TOR can raise fresh investment.