NO PETROL POLITICS, PLEASE( SATURDAY, OCT 24)

THE swift move by President John Evans Atta Mills to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to assure workers of our only refinery of the government’s support and plans for the refinery is commendable.
Besides, the sense of humour displayed by the President during his interaction with the workers helped to calm nerves.
However, the DAILY GRAPHIC thinks that beyond the assurance, the government needs to demonstrate by clear action its commitment to make the oil flow at TOR, and in good time, too.
As a potential producer and exporter of oil by late next year, we should have a national strategy now to take care of the rapid expansion of TOR, instead of the prevailing state of affairs.
Examples abound in many parts of our continent where some countries export crude oil but import finished products at rather higher prices, to the detriment of their citizenry.
This is because of the machinations of many interest groups that benefit from the importation of refined oil.
If the country hopes to avoid this unhealthy practice, then every attempt must be made to salvage TOR by ensuring that all the obstacles are cleared for it to operate smoothly.
The other reason we should treat the TOR issue with dispatch and all the urgency it deserves has to do with the sustainability and viability of the residual fluidised catalytic cracker (RFCC) plant which has been renovated but has no raw material to start operations.
This, indeed, is worrying because the nation has spent millions of hard earned currency to service the plant in anticipation that the oil will flow. With the expectation that Ghana will be an important player in the oil industry, we should be planning towards the building of another refinery to take advantage of that business, bearing in mind that TOR, at its present capacity, is only able to refine 60 per cent of the country’s demand.
The DAILY GRAPHIC supports the President’s concern over those engaged in all sorts of malpractices in the petroleum sector and we see the warning that such people would not get away with their acts which were harming the economy as appropriate.
We appeal to all stakeholders and the social commentators from both sides of the political divide to desist from politicising the TOR issue.
After all, one does not go to the fuel pump to buy petrol bearing a party card. We must treat this frequent petrol shortages as a national concern and make a collective resolve to address it for the public good.
The DAILY GRAPHIC calls on those responsible for procuring oil for the refinery to be forthcoming with reasonable excuses for any challenges so that the citizenry can buy into the solutions so decided for the benefit of all.
We believe that if there had been constant information flow and transparency, the recent outburst by the workers of TOR would have been avoided.
The DAILY GRAPHIC hopes the government will take the necessary and urgent steps to deal with the TOR problem head-on and assure the people of the availability of oil on a regular basis.