NUPENG Condemns Moves By FG To Reduce Petroleum Products Supply

The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has condemned moves by the Federal Government to cut supply of petroleum product to tank farms around Ibafon-Ibru axis of the Apapa-Oshodi expressway as a way of reducing the traffic congestion on the access route to Apapa.

In a chat with Shipping Position Daily correspondent yesterday, General Secretary of NUPENG, Mr. Isaac Aberare warned that should the government cut the supply of product to Ibafon-Ibru tank farms without a corresponding increase in supply to other NNPC channels across the country, the nation will be thrown into another round of fuel scarcity.

The Federal Government had reportedly directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to cut supply of products to Apapa and pump more products to the distribution facilities in Ibadan, Mosimi and Ore in Ondo State, a development that implies a drastic reduction in the volume of products supplied to the tank farms in Lagos.

Aberare condemned the rationale behind the directive, saying that the reduction of petroleum supply will not reduce the traffic gridlock on Apapa expressway.

"We reject insinuations that gridlock along Apapa roads is caused by tanker drivers, the gridlock is caused by lack of good and motorable roads, come to think of it, is it only Apapa we have traffic, look at Ikorodu road, Agege, Carter bridge, Orile-Badagry, Lekki roads and all others, can you say it is tanker drivers that cause these traffic? Government should wake up" he said.

Continuing, the NUPENG top man said that, "government is the owner of the product and they are the ones saying they want to cut supply, but from our end, we know that if they do so without corresponding increase in supply to other NNPC outlets, it will lead to scarcity" he warned.

Also speaking with Shipping Position Daily, some of the executives of the union along Ibeto tank farm in Apapa kicked against the move, saying that this is not the best solution to the problem at hand.

According to them, "the roads are terribly bad, the ditch on the road is something that if they don't take immediate action to cover them before the eventual contract, we will in a short time be completely cut-off".

The union executives lamented that for the past three weeks, loaded tankers had to take three days before they eventually find their way out of the depot. They blamed the situation on the falling of containers along the road, which usually causes heavy gridlock.

A Petroleum marketer, Mr. Fidel Aisodiounne told our correspondent that cutting supply of product to Apapa will have multiplier effects on not less than 10million Nigerians, because it will lead to massive job loss.

He said that the tank farms will start retrenching their staff because they will no longer be able to generate funds to sustain the size of labour they have.

"It is not the best option because of the multiplier effect, tank farm owners are investors, and as such they will always want returns on their investments, if you are cutting supply to the tank farms, you are indirectly telling them to start retrenching people, because when they don't operate to their maximum capacity they cannot generate funds to sustain the size of labour they have"

"As we speak, the tank farms around this area engage over 500,000 people while over 10,000 people are indirectly engaged, and if you follow the tree diagram, over 10million Nigerians are dependent on the Apapa/Coconut axis that we are talking about, including Tin Can" Fidel stated.

The Federal Government had however stated that tankers would now be dispatched from Lagos to the various locations to lift the products.

This fresh directive to the NNPC followed a closed-door meeting ordered by the President in Lagos last week and which was reported by Shipping Position Daily.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Federal Ministries of Defense and Works, NNPC and two of its subsidiaries PPMC and DPR.