GNPC Crude Supply Backs TOR Restart as Burkina Faso Raises Ghana Fuel Imports to 40%

Burkina Faso raised the share of its petroleum product imports routed through Ghana from 15 per cent in 2024 to 40 per cent in 2026, Tema Oil Refinery Managing Director Edmond Kombat said. BusinessGhana reported the figure from his remarks at the Government Accountability Series. Kombat tied the shift to the refinery's resumption of operations.

How TOR's Restart Changed the Supply Route

Kombat said TOR's Crude Distillation Unit and Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker were both idle in 2024, when the refinery received no crude oil, prompting Burkina Faso to divert most of its petroleum imports away from Ghana. TOR restarted the CDU in December 2025 and has since received more than five million barrels of crude oil, including Jubilee and Sankofa crude supplied by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation.

Ghana National Petroleum Corporation is the state-owned national oil company, established in 1983, with participating interests in the Jubilee, TEN and OCTP fields alongside international partners. Kombat said the refinery's operations let Ghana supply locally refined products to Bulk Distribution Companies serving Burkina Faso, reducing the need to source products from distant markets.

He said the added commercial activity benefited BOSTenergies and private Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation terminals, and generated port and transit levy revenue. BOSTenergies' 2025 results, presented at its AGM, included revenue growth of 195% to GH¢3.81 billion and profit after tax up 72% to GH¢683.96 million, BusinessGhana reported, with Energy Minister Dr. John Abdulai Jinapor urging the company to sustain the gains.

"Commercial operations generated more than 36 per cent in revenue in 2025 compared to 2024 and almost 60 per cent revenue growth as of September 2026 this year," Kombat said.

TOR's Storage and Jobs in the Turnaround

According to akta.pro company records, GNPC's subsidiary Explorco is scheduled to begin frontier exploration drilling in the Voltaian Basin in October 2026, described as Ghana's first major onshore exploration initiative. The same records show Ghana's oil production fell from 71.4 million barrels in 2019 to an estimated 36 million barrels in 2025.

TOR's product storage volumes rose 159.37 per cent in 2025 and a further 21.91 per cent in 2026, climbing from 426,954 metric tonnes in 2024 to 1.35 million metric tonnes in 2026, a cumulative increase of 216.19 per cent. Kombat said the refinery created 1,657 direct jobs, including permanent positions for 415 young engineers, and more than 6,500 indirect jobs during the turnaround.

GNPC's Earlier Gas and Field Moves

In May 2026, GNPC, the Government of Ghana, Eni Ghana E&P and Vitol signed a term sheet to expand OCTP gas capacity, targeting a 350 MMscfd increase by 2028 through the Gye Nyame field, BusinessGhana reported. In August 2026, partners in the Jubilee and TEN fields committed approximately US$2 billion for further development, including at least 10 new wells, MyJoyOnline reported. That month, Energy Minister Jinapor named declining production and dwindling reserves as critical threats to the upstream sector, MyJoyOnline reported.

TOR's 2028 Refining Target

Kombat said that with the refinery's expansion from 45,000 to 100,000 barrels a day, the government is targeting about 70 per cent of national fuel demand from local refining by 2028.