PRODUCTION works is set to resume on the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) plant of the Tema Oil Refinery by the end of the month following the arrival of a consulting engineer from Elliot Turbo-Machinery in Europe, manufacturers of the ‘Wet Gas Compressor’, equipment attached to the RFCC plant.
The engineer who has began a kick off meeting with the management of the refinery according to Daily Graphic sources would use a period of about ten days to complete repair works on the equipment.
Acting Managing Director, Dr Kwame Ampofo, who corroborated the information to the Daily Graphic, indicated that, a total of $250,000 would be spent on the repair and maintenance of the equipment.
The plant was shut down early February following damage to the equipment when personnel were in the process of refining parcels of crude oil brought into the country by the Ghana National Petroleum Authority (GNPC) through the government-government arrangement with neighbouring Nigeria.
The shutdown of the facility also saw TOR supplying the consuming public with finished products which were procured for the refinery by Cirrus Energy, Fuel Trade and Sage Commodities.
Dr Ampofo further disclosed that, plans are far advance to replace the burnt loading gantry with automated facilities.
This according to him were parts of stringent safety measures being put in place following the aftermath of the January inferno at the facility that saw two employees losing their lives in the process.
On the shortage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the market, he assured the public that the refinery was working hard to repair a leakage that was detected on its sixth pipeline leading to the suspension of the discharge of the product over the weekend.
He also assured of consistent supply of petroleum products to the markets following further arrangement of crude oil supply from its accredited agents for production works.
A statement signed by Ms Aba Lokko, Public Affairs Manager of TOR, said the company acknowledged the present shortage of LPG on the market, but attributed the situation to some technical difficulties resulting from the fire outbreak on January 19, 2010.
It noted that the incident also coincided with a major maintenance being carried out on the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) Unit.
The statement explained that subsequently, the refinery had been depending on imported finished products to serve the market.
It said it was in the process of discharging one such cargo of 5,000 metric tonnes of LPG, which arrived over the weekend through an arrangement by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) from the Oil Jetty to the refinery.
The statement said TOR sincerely regrets the situation and any inconvenience that it might had caused.
No comments:
Post a Comment