Despite the introduction of electronic system of loading petroleum products at tank farms, also known as 'Project Aquila’ which was introduced by the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) early this year, the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of NUPENG has said that the scheme has reduced product diversion, but that unfortunately, the hijacking of petroleum tankers still continues.
Despite the introduction of electronic system of loading petroleum products at tank farms, also known as 'Project Aquila’ which was introduced by the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) early this year, the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of NUPENG has said that the scheme has reduced product diversion, but that unfortunately, the hijacking of petroleum tankers still continues.
According to PEF, ‘Project Aquila’ was part of the measures introduced to check the diversion of fuel and fraudulent claims of bridging funds by transporters, but the tanker drivers said that even though the gesture is good, it has not extended to all petroleum tankers.
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily last week, the Assistant Secretary of the PTD at the Lagos Zonal office, Comrade Tayo Boyeji alleged that 70 percent of the petroleum trucks that are being loaded from the tank farms around Ibru jetty are not tracked under the project Aquila scheme.
Comrade Boyeji who is also the secretary of the PTD unit at Acorn tank farm around Coconut bus stop in Apapa said that if a truck is being tracked properly as it should be, there is no way such a truck can be diverted without being noticed, he however stressed that a truck that is not being tracked can be hijacked to any unknown spot.
“Petroleum tankers are not being diverted anymore, they are now being hijacked, unfortunately, it is only 30 percent of the trucks that are being tracked, the remaining 70 percent are not being tracked and therefore, once they are hijacked that is the end of the product”, he lamented.
He also confirmed that the reason for this is because many of the petroleum depots did not make it compulsory to track all the trucks leaving their depots with petroleum products. He also pointed out that owners of the cargoes sometimes contribute to the problem by refusing to get their product tracked.
“The reason for this is that, it is only few of the major marketers that have made the tracking of tankers compulsory, not all of them are making it mandatory, many of the tank farms around Coconut are not making use of the tracking, the trucks just come, load and they go”.
“The owner of the product can also decide not to track it, he can decide to take advantage of the scheme and he can decide not to bother” he said.
However, while speaking on the success of the project Aquila on petroleum tankers that subscribe to it, Operations Manager of First Deepwater petroleum tank farm, Mr. Sunday Okpithe said that the scheme is working perfectly and that it has helped in preventing a lot of fraud in bridging claims.
Speaking further, Okpithe said that “I think the scheme is working, I see it as an improvement in our system, before now, once products are loaded from the tank farms, it will be difficult to ascertain if they really get to where they are intended, but now there is no way that you will load a truck and it will just disappear, if the truck is being tracked”
Continuing he said that, “we have not seen any shortcoming in the system, it is working perfectly, since they have just started with the implementation, I believe we should give them some time while we observe the effectiveness.”
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