Apapa gridlock: NNPC denies directive to cut supplies to tank farms

There appears to be a controversy over the recent agreement reached by stakeholders searching for a solution to the traffic congestion in Apapa as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Monday denied being a party to any agreement to cut supplies of petroleum products to tank farms in Apapa.

With the NNPC’s position, hope of immediate relief to the gridlock that is cramping businesses in Apapa and making life unbearable for residents seems to be dimming.

A stakeholders’ meeting chaired by Sylvester Monye, chairman, Presidential Committee on Ports Reforms, convened last week in Lagos to find a solution to the congestion in Apapa and reached some agreements.

One of the major agreements reached at the meeting was that the NNPC and its subsidiary, the Petroleum Pipeline Marketing Company (PPMC), should in the interim regulate petroleum products distribution such that jetties outside Apapa, including those in Mosimi, Ejigbo, Ibadan and Ilorin, are given priority.

The aim of this was to divert fuel tankers to those places to lift fuel so as to relieve Apapa of the gridlock pending the repair of major roads leading to the area.

Stakeholders at the meeting included Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), NNPC, PPMC, NARTO, Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), port operators, business managers in Apapa, among others.

Apapa is home to Nigeria’s two busiest ports, Tin Can and Apapa Ports. It also plays host to several oil tank farms and therefore attracts all manner of trucks and tankers headed either to the ports or tank farms to lift products. The result has been daily traffic congestion with negative impact on the nation’s economy.

Last Sunday, Babatunde Fashola, Lagos State governor, visited Apapa for the third Sunday running. Stakeholders who met with the governor accused the NNPC of reneging on the agreement which the corporation was a party to. Fashola was told that the NNPC had yet to cut supplies to the tank farms in Apapa, hence the continued presence of tankers within the area.

But Nasir Imoglagbe, public affairs manager, PPMC, told BusinessDay yesterday that there was no directive to NNPC to cut supplies to tank farms in Apapa. Rather, it was agreed at the stakeholders’ meeting that trucks not scheduled for loading should not go to Apapa, he said.

“The arrangement is to attend to only trucks that have tickets to load,” Imoglagbe said, adding that by not cutting supplies to tank farms in Apapa, PPMC had not violated any directive.

He said the company also operated like any other marketing company in Apapa, noting, however, that the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) had been directed to monitor and oversee the arrangement of fuel loading in Apapa.