The almost unyielding Apapa traffic gridlock which cause countless loss of valuable man-hours to businesses, health hazards to commuters and lateness of raw material to factories across the country ,may find a lasting solution when a proposed 600,000 metric ton petroleum products tank farm is put in place in the Lekki Export Processing Zone.
The main cause of the Apapa gridlock is the flow-in and flow-out of thousands of 33,000 litre capacity motorised tankers to lift petoleum products from a mesh of small tank farms which litter the area to the nooks and crannies of the country.
The relief is coming in the form of a N49.5 billion storage facility at the Lekki Export Processing Zone, in Lagos, by Pinnacle oil and gas company, an indigenous firm, which is expected to divert a good bulk of the tankers away fro Apapa, to Lekki.
The project is however expected to be completed in between 12 and 24 months, so the Lagos State Government and other stakeholders will have to continue to seek alternative solutions to the Apapa gridlock. Relocating tank farms from Apapa is one of the solutions that the state government is pursuing.
The construction on the Pinacle Oil project is expected to start in January next year.
The project which is expected to generate about 20,000 direct and indirect jobs during and after construction, would also help to reduce the cost of demurrage of petroleum products, as it would significantly shorten the turnaround time of ocean-going vessels bearing the product.
Peter Mbah, chief executive officer of Pinnacle Oil said there would be two mooring systems, a single point mooring (SPM)system for bigger vessels up to 250 ,000 metric tons, while the other would be a smaller mooring system which is called the conventional system, for smaller vessels of 20,000 to 50,000 metric tons.
According to Mbah, the idea is long overdue in the country. He said: “We have a situation in our country where we spend hugely on operational costs for importing refined products. This is unacceptable. Nigeria spends about a N9 per litre on a litre of petrol as operational cost.
“The project is conceived because the era of going to Lome in Togo or other neighbouring countries for transhipment of petroleum products is over. The project would eliminate the cost of hiring shuttle vessels”.
He said “what the company is providing is supply chain infrastructural solution, that is marketers are able to bring their big vessels from anywhere, whether they are buying the products from Dangote Refinery, or any refinery across the globe, they will bring their vessel straight away to the facility without going to look for smaller vessels to lighten the cargo before they can discharge.”
He added that with this development, the cost of transportation of imported products would crash if other marketers should key into the projects, as there would be no more payment of demurrage because it would no longer be necessary.
“It would reduce the operating cost of all tank farms, and would bring down the prices of petroleum products because all those costs associated to demurrage would have been eliminated.”
Peter Mbah said the detailed design and all the other lead items are already in place.
Also speaking about the benefits of the project, Joe Ejim of JF consortium Limited, the company which packaged the financier support for Pinnacle Oil and Gas, said the essence of the project is to bring more efficiency to the petroleum products supply chain in the country.
The mooring facilities would be linked by a 40 kilometre pipeline to a 600,000 metric ton storage facility at the Lekki Export Processing Trade Zone. The big vessels are expected to come in directly ,anchor at the mooring facility and connect their hoses to the pipeline, discharge and leave the place within 24 and 48 hours.
Ejim said If there is need to transport products to the tank farms in Apapa from Lekki facility, this would be done by the small daughter vessels of 5,000metric tons which can feed from the conventional Buoy Mooring which has a smaller capacity.
Olusola Bello & Frank Uzogbenam
