He said:”Government has no intention of selling the Tema Oil Refinery and we will rather assist TOR to re-establish itself as a vibrant state enterprise in petroleum production.”

President Mahama said this when he and the visiting Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Keith Christopher Rowley, visited the company to assess its performance since its full resumption in February this year.

The TOR, which had to partially close down due to financial difficulties, has been given some lifeline which enabled it to resume operations early this year.

President Mahama said plans were afoot to build a new refinery on the premises of TOR to increase production to 100,000 barrels daily.

He said the revival of TOR and its achievement was exemplary and that he would recommend it to other crawling state enterprises to learn from its performance and practices.

The President congratulated the Management and staff of TOR for working assiduously for the revival of the company and gave the assurance that government would continue to support them to achieve their goals.

Prime Minister Rowley said both Trinidad and Tobago and Ghana shared the same socio-economic goals and values and would, therefore, work around them to bring about mutual benefits.

He commended President Mahama for working hard to turn around the fortunes of the TOR and putting back smiles on the faces of the workers and their dependants.

Prime Minister Rowley also used the visit to ascertain areas of co-operation with his country.

Few years ago the TOR run into financial crisis which nearly crippled its operations until government recapitalised it to resume full operations early this year.

President Mahama and his guest also visited the Volta Aluminium Company.

Source GNA