- published: 30 Apr 2014
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Tema is a city on the Atlantic coast of Ghana, lying 25 kilometres (16 mi) east of the Ghanaian capital city, Accra, in the region of Greater Accra. As of 2012, Tema has a population of approximately 160,939, a marked decrease from its 2005 figure of 209,000. The Greenwich Meridian (00 Longitude) passes directly through the city. Tema is locally nicknamed the "Harbour City" because of its status as Ghana's largest seaport.
A planned city commissioned by Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, Tema was originally a small fishing village, and grew after the construction of a large harbour in 1961. It is now a major trading center, home to an oil refinery and many manufacturing centres, and is linked to Accra by railway and a highway. Tema is one of Ghana's two deep seaports, the other being Sekondi-Takoradi.
Before Ghana's independence, the government identified a small fishing village called Torman as the projected site for a modern sea port to serve the new Ghana. Torman residents grew the gourd plant known as Tor in the local Ga language, from which a variety of products could be obtained, including tsene (calabash), akpaki and akoji; hence the name Torman ("Gourd Town"). This name was eventually corrupted to "Tema".
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as naphtha, gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas. Oil refineries are typically large, sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping running throughout, carrying streams of fluids between large chemical processing units. In many ways, oil refineries use much of the technology of, and can be thought of, as types of chemical plants. The crude oil feedstock has typically been processed by an oil production plant. There is usually an oil depot (tank farm) at or near an oil refinery for storage of bulk liquid products.
An oil refinery is considered an essential part of the downstream side of the petroleum industry.
Raw or unprocessed crude oil is not generally useful in industrial applications, although "light, sweet" (low viscosity, low sulfur) crude oil has been used directly as a burner fuel for steam vessel propulsion. The lighter elements, however, form explosive vapors in the fuel tanks and are therefore hazardous, especially in warships. Instead, the hundreds of different hydrocarbon molecules in crude oil are separated in a refinery into components which can be used as fuels, lubricants, and as feedstock in petrochemical processes that manufacture such products as plastics, detergents, solvents, elastomers and fibers such as nylon and polyesters.