Operators in the downstream sector of the Nigerian oil and gas industry have expressed fears of impending crisis as petroleum marketers now construct as much as 70,000 liters and 90,000 liters capacity tankers in order to transport fuel from Lagos.
Investigation by Shipping Position Daily revealed that many owners and drivers of fuel tankers have been reconstructing their trucks with tanks to load more products than their capacity, despite the federal government approved limit of 45,000 litre capacities.
The Federal Government had in 2018 introduced an Axle Load Control Policy to regulate the tonnage of load being carried by heavy duty trucks and tankers nationwide, in accordance with an Act of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
National Secretary of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO); Comrade Aloga Ogbogo in a chat with Shipping Position Daily last week confirmed that although the approved capacity for trucks by the federal government is between 33,000 liters and 45,000 liters.
He however explained that many of the marketers are pushed by their quest to make gain, given the bad state of the roads nationwide, the insecurity and the huddles faced in transporting the products.
The NARTO scribe said that the movement of petroleum products over time has gone through a lot of travails, “Before this time, the tankers were not even coming to Lagos, let’s ask ourselves why are they coming to Lagos now? They are coming to Lagos because the pipelines have been vandalized”
“I am aware that we have many NNPC depots in the whole of this country, petroleum products are supposed to come through pipelines to each depot, tankers would now approach these depots to load products for onward distribution to filling stations within the various areas, these has turned to be a mirage because of the vandalization of pipelines”
“Since this happened, the movement of product is now through tanks, and the roads are bad, there is insecurity, the price and payment of the product is regulated by NNPC and not subject to demand and supply, the NNPC through the Petroleum Product Price Regulatory Agency regulates the payment of bridge gap”
Comrade Ogbogo who spoke on the recently introduced Axle Load Control Policy of the government confirmed that the retail arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has distributed letters to all tank makers and that implementation of the law is about to begin.
He said; “The law has started, I am aware that NNPC retail has distributed letters to the tank makers, In a very short time from now, they are going to begin enforcement”
“Government is saying that they are not going to allow any tanker to carry more than 45,000 liters, the law has come into play after it has been signed by the president, to say that any tanker more than 45,000 liters may not ply Nigerian roads because it is impacting on the roads negatively”
Also speaking with Shipping Position Daily, former Southwest Chairman of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) Comrade Tokunbo Korodo confirmed that the use of more than 45,000 liter- capacity tanks is threatening road infrastructures in Nigeria.
He confirmed to our correspondent that “the union, in collaboration with transporters and the Federal Government are putting heads together to put an end to it”
Sources confirmed to our correspondent last week that greedy oil marketers fiddle with their trucks in order to maximize profit without caring about the threat to the lives of other road users.
“Fuel trucks are of different capacities. The normal ones are between 33,000 and 45,000-litre capacity. Any tank that exceeds that is abnormal. But we have some people who carry abnormally 75,000 and even 90,000 litres. We have told federal government officials what to do about that. We have regulators who if they say tankers should not load more than a certain capacity and follow up with stiff sanctions, there will be sanity in the system.
“The fabricators have equipment they use to the extent that if the truck falls, the product may not spill, but as you know, Nigeria is a country where we go for cheaper things and cut corners,” a stakeholder said.
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