(Ecofin Agency) - The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Alex Mould (photo), has expressed the company’s readiness to supply crude oil to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) on the condition that the latter has financial assurance.

According to Mould, Ghana’s Petroleum laws does not permit the sale of the product without a financial guarantee for the payment of the purchase.“The refinery has been neglected for some time. It requires financial instrument as a guarantee before we can give them oil. The law is firm on that; I think we must give them some time. They are still working on the refinery. You are aware that GNPC has partners in the industry. The corporation does not undertake transactions unilaterally. So once the refinery is in a position to buy and pay, we will offload the product to them,” he said.

He emphasized that the practice is a worldwide process set up to increase transparency and accountability in the petroleum industry.The CEO added that TOR has the capacity to put its balance sheet together to acquire large quantity of crude oil.

Reports have indicated that TOR had started showing signs of profitability after seven years of stagnations as it recorded a profit of $800,000 from its operations from February 16 to April 20, this year.Under a close collaboration between TOR and the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) Company, TOR processed one million barrels of crude.

The refinery is expected to generate a profit of $1.5 million after a second shipment of a million barrels has been refined from May to August 2016, Ghanaweb reports.

Anita Fatunji