Sentuo Oil Refinery Ltd. has commissioned the first phase of it two-phase grassroots refinery still under construction in the Heavy Industrial Area of Tema, Greater Accra Region, Ghana, about 30 km east of the capital city of Accra.

Sentuo Oil Refinery Ltd. (SORL)—a subsidiary of privately held Chinese conglomerate Sentuo Group—has commissioned the first phase of it two-phase grassroots refinery still under construction in the Heavy Industrial Area of Tema, Greater Accra Region, Ghana, about 30 km east of the capital city of Accra.

Operational as of Jan. 26, Phase 1 of SORL’s refinery is equipped to process 2 million tonnes/year (tpy) of crude oil as part of a public-private sector partnership under Ghana’s broader industrialization agenda to strengthen the domestic economy and reduce the nation’s dependence on petroleum-product imports from abroad, Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said in a statement.

Ghana currently relies on foreign sources to meet 97% of its overall demand for finished petroleum products, Akufo-Addo said.

Alongside creating a stable supply of petroleum products, creating additional jobs, and increasing competitiveness of Ghana’s manufacturing sector, Akufo-Addo said he expects startup of the refinery’s second phase—which will expand crude processing capacity at the site to 5 million tpy—also will further support the government’s Made-in-Ghana initiative to prioritize local production from local resources, including attracting increased outside investments into the nation’s petroleum, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and construction industries.

While neither Akufo-Addo nor SORL disclosed details regarding startup or operations of the refinery’s first phase, Shanghai Hoto Engineering Inc.—which delivered engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services for the project—confirmed in a late-December 2023 release that SORL on Dec. 15 “seamlessly commissioned” all Phase-1 “process units, storage-transportation installations, and utilities