Fresh investigations have revealed that many of the petroleum tank farms scattered around Lagos State, especially those along the Apapa axis, have been empty for months without any product importation even as the petroleum tanker drivers attached to these tank farms have remained idle for equal number of months.
Investigations carried out at the tank farms last week by Shipping Position Daily revealed that many of the them have not received any product since the beginning of the subsidy probe, while some of them have been idle since last year.
Fresh investigations have revealed that many of the petroleum tank farms scattered around Lagos State, especially those along the Apapa axis, have been empty for months without any product importation even as the petroleum tanker drivers attached to these tank farms have remained idle for equal number of months.
Investigations carried out at the tank farms last week by Shipping Position Daily revealed that many of the them have not received any product since the beginning of the subsidy probe, while some of them have been idle since last year.
Members of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) units of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) attached to the tank farms also confirmed to our correspondent that they have been idle for months and that their members had to work at other depots that have products in order to make ends meet.
Some of the tanks that have not got product this year include; Gulf Treasure, T’ Time depot, both are new depots whose PTD unit confirmed received its last product in December last year. Index Oil and Fatgbems petroleum, both located at the Kirikiri axis of Apapa are also confirmed not have lifted products for many months.
Others that are presently idle are; Acorn petroleum, Sea Petroleum and Gas (SPG) and Capital Oil and Gas.
Sources at the tank farms told our correspondent that Capital Oil has not made any major importation this year and that the products that are being sold at the depot are strictly NNPC products. Also, there are rumours that SPG depot which is also dry currently, has not been servicing its tank farm with products it gets from the NNPC and that the company usually sells its product to other companies midstream.
Speaking with our correspondent, Chairman of PTD, Gulf Treasure Unit; Comrade Kehinde Samuel confirmed that since the tank farm was established it has received product just once and that this was in December 2011. “Most of our drivers now go outside to load products, we do not wait for the tank farms to have product before we can work” he said.
Also speaking in the same manner, Vice Chairman of PTD, T’Time Unit; Comrade Lukman Alao told our correspondent that since the unit was established in December 2011, it has only received product once.
Apart from these, our correspondent also learned that the non-payment of petroleum subsidy to oil marketers by the federal government has caused Nigerian banks to stop granting finances to the owners of the tank farms for importation of fuel.
This was confirmed by the chairman of Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN); Mr. Dapo Abiodun who had predicted that oil marketers that are still having the product would soon run out of stock.
“The only people that have products is the NNPC because they have done all the swoop arrangements, they have all the vessels floating when they bring in the products, they will start to run demurrage,” he said.
He suggested that the federal government should stop banks for charging their interest pending when all the money owned to marketers have been fully paid.
“Government has not done that and the banks are happy counting their interest.
“If I can’t pay for a particular month, the banks will debit my account every month. Why they do that is because they have the books to our tank farms. If there was no collateral they will not do that and by then they will have started to cry out. All the banks are doing current evaluation to make sure that what marketers owe is still covered by their assets. As long as this is happening, they are not willing to cry out”.
He called on government to stop the banks from counting interests.
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