There are indications that many of the petroleum tank farms in Apapa Lagos may have been abandoned as investigations have revealed that many of them are currently idle and lacking patronage.
Shipping Position Daily gathered that the level of demand for petroleum products, especially the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) by distributors has reduced drastically.
There are indications that many of the petroleum tank farms in Apapa Lagos may have been abandoned as investigations have revealed that many of them are currently idle and lacking patronage.
Shipping Position Daily gathered that the level of demand for petroleum products, especially the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) by distributors has reduced drastically.
Depot Manager of the biggest depot in Apapa; Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Mr Godfrey Okorie confirmed to our correspondent in an interview that the amount of trucks loaded from the tank farms have dropped from 400 per day now to 35 trucks.
Okorie who is also the chairman of the technical committee of depot operators at the Ibafon-Ibru complex said that the depot usually receive not less than four vessels per week, but that this has also been affected as the tanks are currently fully loaded.
When our correspondent visited some of the jetties, vessels were sighted at berth waiting to discharge their contents.
Okorie however attributed the situation to the state of emergency that was slammed on three northern states by President Goodluck Jonathan.
According to him, many of the products being loaded at the tank farms are not actually consumed by Nigerians; many are being taken across the border to Chad, Niger, and other neighbouring countries.
"There is no gainsaying that we consume 55million litres of PMS on daily basis, when actually the product are being taken away from the borders, it is now clear to everybody that majority of the products that are being lifted here are taken across the border, but now that we have emergency rule in three northern states, people are not finding it easy to get the products out of the country", he disclosed.
He said that majority of the people getting the products do not have fuel stations, what they do is buy it and make money out of it.
"In a week we receive four vessels of PMS, as we are discharging we are trucking out, but now vessels are lined up across the jetty waiting to discharge product". "Before, we usually load 350 to 400 trucks on daily basis, but now the highest is 35 trucks", he lamented.
He said that many of the fuel stations in the north are usually having two to three trucks standing and waiting to be discharged.
According to him, the Eastern part of the country depends mostly on Calabar, Port Harcourt and Warri refineries.
"Their coming here is only when there is an issue at their side which is usually a one-off thing, majority of the products loaded here go to the north, now that there is no way to take it out you can see depots being abandoned", he stressed.
"In the whole of Lagos, there is no station that does not have fuel" he stressed.
Giving an insight into the price of the product, Okorie said that private marketers importing the PMS are now selling at a cheaper rate than what the NNPC depots are selling.
According to him, government sells at 87.66, but the individual marketers sell their own at 87.3.
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