The Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahir Hammond, has paid a working visit to the Sentuo Oil Refinery Limited (SORL), touting the project as a good prospect to see to an end Ghana’s refinery problems.
The project, which is in accordance with government’s ‘One District One Factory’ (1D1F) development policy, will produce five million tons of all types of crude assays per annum, with an output of 3.2 Million tons of refined petroleum products such as gasoline, kerosene, and diesel of high quality above the Euro IV Standard.
In addition, the refinery will produce 350,000 tons of series of pitch products, 200,000 tons of lubricating base oil and solvent naphtha, and 400,000 tons of by-products such as polypropylene, liquefied gas, ammonium sulfate, sulfuric acid, and sulphur when the two phases of the project are fully completed and commissioned.
The Sentuo Oil Refinery essentially factors in key features such as modern scientific technology and innovation, energy conservation and environmental protection, recycling economics, phase & rolling development, and the scalability of production capacity and quality; which are all key requirements of any new production and/or manufacturing project.
Mr Hammond, after his tour around the facility, was full of praise for the investors describing the project as a classical example of government’s industrialisation agenda of the 1D1F.
“I am overwhelmed by this huge structure. I have been seeing images of the plant and today I decided to pay a visit to see the progress of work and in fact, I’m impressed with what I’ve seen so far.”
The Minister lamented over the huge amount of money that goes into the importation of refined oil and gas products annually in the country and expressed optimism this project has come at the opportune time to address this challenge.
He met a top delegation from the Sentua Group led by the Chairman, Xu Ning Quan. Also present to usher the Minister on the tour and lead the presentations were Reverend Dr. George Dawson-Amoah, Corporate Affairs Management Consultant, George Andoh, Technical Advisor, and other top officials of the Sentuo Group.
In his welcome address Chairman of the Sentuo Group, Xu Ning Quan said the Sentuo Group has Ghana at heart and this informed its decision to invest in vital sectors of the economy for accelerated development.
The Sentuo Oil Refinery in particular he informed was born out of the need to boost Ghana’s energy sector taking into consideration refining quality oil and Gas products at affordable prices as well.
Mr Quan was upbeat that the project will impact positively in terms of revenue generation like taxes and levies, create massive employment, foreign exchange savings, value to customers (lower prices, superior quality products, local crude oil), and institution of community relations and CSR activities with focus areas which include health, education, sanitation and social or humanitarian.
He, however, called for immediate solutions to some challenges faced like test run permits (NPA), natural gas connectivity and supply, access to foreign exchange, crude oil supply support (local & foreign), tax waiver on materials, equipment & machinery (Phase II) and motorable access roads all in a bid to provide a smooth operation of the project.
Rev Dawson-Amoah also said it was imperative that effective steps were taken to ensure that domestic refining of petroleum products was not adversely affected by dumping, countervailing, or importation to avoid unfair trade practices and considering the magnitude of impact the facility would make in the downstream petroleum industry.
Mr Andoh was optimistic the new refinery would help the country cut its long-standing dependence on imported gasoline and diesel supplies, and save the country the millions of dollars spent to import finished petroleum products.
The Sentuo Oil Refinery was conceived from the Chinese government’s Belt and Road Development Strategy for the oil and gas industry in China & Africa.
Following extensive research and consultations, the Sentuo Group settled on Shanghai HoTo Engineering’s oil refinery technology.
The ‘Sentuo Oil Refinery Limited (SORL)’ phase 1 is on the verge of completion pending all regulatory issues. The Phase 2 is expected to be completed in January 2024 and will operate at a capacity of 5 million tons per year (tpy). The Refinery is located at the Tema Industrial Zone in Ghana, West Africa.
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