Dangote Refinery Exports to Ghana May Decline as Tema Refinery Resumes Operation
- Ghana’s 45,000 bpd Tema refinery has resumed operations after being offline since 2021
- Dangote refinery supplied about 27,000 bpd of fuel to Ghana in 2025
- Ghana’s clean fuel imports rose to about 128,000 bpd this year, according to Kpler
Oluwatobi Odeyinka is a business editor at Legit.ng, covering energy, the money market, technology and macroeconomic trends in Nigeria.
Ghana’s demand for petrol imports from Nigeria may decline following the resumption of operations at the country’s state-owned Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), which had been largely inactive since April 2021.
The refinery, with an installed capacity of 45,000 barrels per day (bpd), has returned to operation after receiving regulatory approval in December.
Source: UGC
Industry analysts say the development could reduce Ghana’s dependence on imported fuel, including supplies from Nigeria.
Dangote is Ghana’s largest supplier
Nigeria’s 650,000 bpd Dangote Petroleum Refinery was Ghana’s largest fuel supplier in 2025, exporting an estimated 27,000 bpd of refined petroleum products to the West African country.
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According to shipping and commodities data from Kpler, Ghana’s imports of clean petroleum products have more than doubled since 2017, reaching about 128,000 bpd this year.
These imports include roughly 65,000 bpd of diesel and gasoil, as well as about 52,000 bpd of gasoline.
Ghana’s refinery now operating at 28,000 bpd
As reported by MarketForces Africa, TOR confirmed that the Tema refinery is currently operating at around 28,000 bpd.
The operator said all refined products are being sent into storage, marking the first time in several years that the facility has been able to stockpile output.
The refinery has storage capacity for about 260,000 tonnes of refined products and approximately 1.93 million barrels of crude oil.
Operations resumed after the completion of three months of maintenance work on the crude distillation unit (CDU), which ended on October 30.
The Ghanaian government appointed a new management team in May, led by Edmond Kombat, with a mandate to restart the CDU and the refinery’s 14,000 bpd residue fluid catalytic cracking unit.
Source: UGC
The refinery had previously missed a planned October restart deadline. It eventually resumed operations in mid-December.
TOR said plans are underway to gradually increase crude processing to full capacity once a new furnace is integrated into the atmospheric distillation unit.
In the medium term, the refinery is considering upgrades that include expanding CDU capacity to 60,000 bpd and replacing an existing 6,500 bpd catalytic reformer with a larger 10,000 bpd continuous catalytic reformer.
Nigeria's fuel export surges, new refineries expected
Legit.ng earlier reported that Nigeria's oil industry is witnessing some disruptions, with Dangote Refinery engrossed in a price war with marketers and new competition expected in the petroleum refining sector.
Industry data released by the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) revealed that scores of new refineries, currently at different stages of development, are expected to add more than 850,000 barrels per day (bpd) to Nigeria’s refining capacity once completed.
Also, while Ghana’s import of fuel from Nigeria is expected to decline, Nigeria's current account surplus narrowed to $3.42bn following a rise in crude oil exports. Refined petroleum product exports surged by 44% driven by increased domestic refining capacity.
Source: Legit.ng
