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Ghana’s PHDC to start phase one build by year end

  • Märkte: Oil products
  • 17.07.26

Ghana's privately-owned Petroleum Hub Development Corporation (PHDC) is set to start first phase construction of its $60bn 900,000 b/d refinery project by the end of the year, the company's operations and technical director Kwabena Owusu Abrokwa told Argus on the sidelines of the GhIPCON conference in Accra.

PHDC is waiting for compensation to be paid out by the state to those affected by the acquisition of land for the project, Abrokwa said. After that process is completed this year, construction should begin at the site for the first phase of the petroleum hub project by year-end.

The first of three 300,000 b/d refineries and a 90,000 b/d petrochemical plant are planned in a first phase, along with 3mn m³ of storage tank capacity and a jetty. The first phase will take five years to complete.

Initial agreements and contracts are signed for the first phase of the project to begin once land acquisition and compensation processes are resolved. Argus previously reported PHDC signing an initial agreement with Mighty Gager on 17 March to build 2mn t of oil storage tanks. The first phase is "almost taking off in terms of construction", Abrokwa said.

The payment of adequate compensation and excess land purchase have been part of the "most significant issue" besetting the project, the company's deputy head Halimatu Sadia Abdulai previously said on 17 March.

PHDC reduced the land holdings for the project from 20,000 acres to 12,500 acres in response to local petitioning against its scope, according to Abrokwa. PHDC will retain access to wetlands on the planned site, which the company seeks to preserve, he said.

The location of the proposed refining hub in Jomoro, southwest Ghana, will allow the project to accept any sized vessel in the world, Abrokwa said, compared with the existing port of Tema, which serves the state-owned 45,000 b/d Tema and privately-owned 40,000 b/d Sentuo refineries east of Accra.

Waters offshore Jomoro are as deep as 27 metres, compared with around 16 metres in Tema, according to Abrokwa. This would allow the refining complex to eventually take any sized crude cargo or load any sized vessel with refined products.

Upon completion, the export-oriented PHDC refinery project would seek to supply west Africa and Africa more broadly with refined products from its refining and petrochemical complex, Abrokwa said. Road fuel demand in sub-Saharan Africa is due to rise strongly over the decades ahead because of population growth. Gasoil and gasoline demand are set to rise by 59pc and 50pc, respectively, from 2023 levels to 70mn t/yr and 60mn t/yr, according to consultancy Citac.

Ghanaian fuel consumption alone grew by 15.3pc on the year to 4.5bn litres last year, head of Ghana's Chamber of Oil Marketing Companies Riverson Oppong told the conference. Fuel demand growth is strongly correlated to economic growth, where Ghana's economy grew by 6pc in 2025, according to the Ghana Statistical Service.


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