An end to the lingering fuel scarcity in Lagos State and other parts of the country may not be near, as vessles carrying petroleum products could not discharge at the Atlas Cove, Mosimi, due to pipelines vandalisation, which has affected operation at the depot, which services Lagos and its environs.
An official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), told THISDAY last night, that the Mosimi Depot, is down, and pumping of products has been suspended.
The source said two vessles with Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), had arrived Lagos and waiting to discharge.
As at last night, NNPC authorities were negotiating with private tank owners in Apapa, Lagos, to ensure that the vessles discharge their products.
Dr Livi Ajuonuma, the Corporation’s General Manager, Group Public Affairs, confirmed the development, stating that it was necessary to ensure that the landed vessles discharge to avoid pile up.
“All the orders we placed during the last quarter of 2006 have started coming. The ships are coming in batches, every week.
Two vessles have arrived and we are negotiating with private tank owners in Apapa, to ensure that they discharge immediately. We don�t want a situation where we will have pileup of ships waiting to discharge.
“Mosimi Depot is down, we can�t pump fuel, because of the vandalisation of pipelines.�
Ajuonuma expressed concern that the sitution might be worse in the eastern and western parts of the country, where the Corporation’s pipelines in Abeokuta, Enugu, Aba and PortHarcourt were vandalised, saying the Corporation will resort to bridging in the supply of fuel to those areas.
He said if bridging was adopted, anything could happen, as the vessle will have to travel a very long distance, and in the process, may disappear or get involved in accident.
An NNPC pipeline at Ijegun area of Lagos State was in the early hours of Sunday vandalised, prompting the Corporation to cut off supply to Mosimi Depot.
Only recently, Mosimi, which had earlier been vandalised, resumed pumping of product after repairs.
The vandalised pipeline, which later caught fire, due to bush burning is yet to be repaired.
The latest incident which occured less than two weeks after hundreds of people died in a pipeline fire at Awori, area of Abule Egba, affected supply of the product to Lagos and its environs with the the re emergence of Long queues at filling stations where the product was available. The situation is said to be worse in other states.
Signs of petroleum scarcity became noticeable a few days before Christmas when long queues emerged at many petrol stations across the country. The situation which has remained unabated was worsend by vandalization of pipelines across the country.
However, petroleum marketers yesterday maintained that the corporation was not supplying them enough product.
An independent marketer told THISDAY that for sometime now, only about 40 trucks load daily at their depot, as against the normal 150 trucks which load daily.
He stated that about 200 trucks were waiting to load at their depot, but that the product was not available.
“For three days now, we have refused to allow more trucks to enter the depot, because about 200 are still waiting to load. Today, only 40 trucks loaded from our depot. We do not have enough supplies” the source said.
Jan102007