Tanker vessels trying to discharge their products into tank farms at the Kirikiri jetty in Lagos last week experienced challenges and delays because the jetty could not accommodate the vessels at the same time.
Petroleum marketers and NUPENG members operating at the tank farms told Shipping Position Daily under anonymity that they experienced delays in getting their products because the depots had to wait for one vessel to finish discharging before another can come in.
Tanker vessels trying to discharge their products into tank farms at the Kirikiri jetty in Lagos last week experienced challenges and delays because the jetty could not accommodate the vessels at the same time.
Petroleum marketers and NUPENG members operating at the tank farms told Shipping Position Daily under anonymity that they experienced delays in getting their products because the depots had to wait for one vessel to finish discharging before another can come in.
When our correspondent visited the farms last week, the obviously frustrated operators lamented being delayed for days because a bigger vessel which was discharging product at Swift Oil had occupied all the jetty, thereby forcing three other vessels to queue up to discharge product at Techno Oil, Fatgbems petroleum and Bovas oil.
A marketer at Bovas Oil told our correspondent that, "it usually takes up to five days for vessels to finish discharging their contents into the tanks, the ship at Swift Oil is quite big and it has been there all this while, others are just waiting on the water and they can’t bring in products".
"This is affecting us because we have an urgent need from our customers for us to supply them product, we have paid for the product here but I will have to go and load elsewhere now, I will come back when they are ready here".
Our correspondent also gathered that the space constraint at the jetty is as a result of the closeness of the tank farms to each other.
The way the depots are clustered together has also led to non-availability of space within the depots than at the jetty.
According to contacts within the Fatgbems depot, waiting time of the vessel depend on the quantity of product it is carrying, while some of the depot have bigger tanks than the other.
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