Ghana’s Sentuo Oil Refinery in Tema to process Jubilee crude lifted from Ghanaian waters for the first time, as a landmark shift from exporting raw oil to refining it at home.

Speaking at the refinery’s Jubilee Crude Berth Ceremony, the Minister for Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, called the event “a defining moment in Ghana’s history” and a key part of President John Dramani Mahama’s vision to turn natural wealth into domestic benefits.

“For the first time in Ghana’s history as an oil-producing nation, a cargo of Jubilee crude, lifted from beneath our own waters, has arrived not in Rotterdam, Guangdong or the Gulf of Mexico, but here on Ghanaian soil, at a world-class refinery in Tema, to be transformed into fuel that will power Ghanaian homes, businesses and roads,” she said.

Ofosu-Adjare noted that the move breaks a long pattern of exporting crude while importing refined products at volatile prices that over the past 15 years have hurt ordinary Ghanaians, including transport operators, traders, farmers and fishermen.

“Today, that cycle begins to change as we build the Ghana envisioned under President Mahama’s reset agenda a Ghana that not only extracts its wealth but transforms it,” she uttered.

The Minister praised Sentuo Oil Refinery Limited and the Sentuo Group for nearly US$2 billion in investment and pledged government support to grow a local industrial ecosystem around the refinery including petrochemicals, fertiliser, plastics and other inputs.

She also said discussions in China had generated excitement about plans for a fertiliser plant in Ghana and that her Ministry is ready to work with Sentuo and partners to realise the project.

The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Dr. John Abdulai Jinapor, also described the crude arrival as a landmark that advances local value addition and energy security.

He said the development gained urgency amid geopolitical tensions and President Mahama’s directive to increase domestic refining of local crude.

He announced that through collaboration with Sentuo, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Explorco, Tullow Ghana, Kosmos Energy, Vitol Ghana and other partners, arrangements have been made to supply roughly one million barrels of Jubilee crude to Sentuo for processing.

Dr. Jinapor noted that Tema Oil Refinery received one million barrels in May, recommenced refining in June, and further supplies are planned.

He added that Sentuo’s planned Phase Two expansion would raise capacity from 40,000 to 100,000 barrels per stream day, positioning Ghana as a West African refining hub.

Both ministers stressed that local refining will create jobs, transfer technical skills, deepen industrial linkages, support transport and infrastructure (through diesel and asphalt production), provide cleaner household cooking fuel (LPG), and reduce dependence on imports turning natural resources into durable development gains.