The Senior Staff Union of the Tema Oil Refinery has urged the general public to disregard recent ‘misinformation’ concerning the TOR-Torrentco proposed partnership.

According to the Union, the architects of the ongoing propaganda against the partnership are “either being ignorant about the real facts or being sponsored by adversaries of the refinery to keep the refinery in its current near helpless state for their wicked and selfish interest.”

The Union in a press statement noted that the proposed partnership would help revamp and reposition TOR – which has buckled under huge overhang debts, huge indebtedness to utility companies, product accounting challenges among many others – to effectively deliver on its core mandate and related businesses in a sustainable manner.

“It is our considered view that the right investment has to be made now, other than that we risk losing our only refinery which is fast deteriorating. Quite obviously, we think the only way out now is to consider private participation in the running of the Refinery,” the group said.

As such, the Union noted that the decision by the Board and Management to engage Torrentco is a welcomed one.

“We are confident that this initiative would also guarantee job security and improved conditions of service and bring hope at last to the suffering workers, many of whom are lacing their boots to join the exodus,” the group said.

It added that the yet to be finalized arrangement with Torrentco Asset Management is the only viable option available to bring back the refinery into operation.

“In particular, we consider as refreshing that apart from the annual and monthly rent that the partner will be paying to TOR, they will also be making a capex investment of USD 22 Million on the plants and other associated facilities.”

It further added that per the terms of the arrangement, TOR is allowed to terminate the deal any time and refund the cost of investment to Torrentco if it finds a better alternative during the tenure of the agreement.

“As far as we are concerned, there is currently no other concrete alternative better than what is being considered now. We therefore pledge our support to the Board, Management and the Government as it works to conclude this agreement,” the statement concluded.