The Federal Government has said it will decongest the Apapa petroleum depot in order to make the area less prone to fire outbreaks.
The decision is coming on the heels of the fire that razed about 50 per cent of the loading gantry of a tank farm owned by Yinka Folawiyo Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited on Thursday.
The Energy Minister, Dr. Edmund Daukoru, disclosed this on Friday in Lagos, while assessing the extent of damage caused by the fire incident.
He noted that the Apapa depot was congested and that it posed a lot of insecurity to the area.
Daukoru said, �The decongestion issue is already recognised by the Federal Government, and it has decided that no other developer will be allowed to construct tank farms in the area.
�The present situation is causing both marine and land congestion and government is not happy with the situation.�
He stated that, henceforth, new depot developers would be allocated space at the Akodo Free Trade Zone in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos State.
He, however, did not state how soon the decongestion process would take place.
He said, �A committee would be set up to look into the report of the situation in Apapa, then take a decision and pass it on to government for ratification.�
He stated that the options immediately available were to refuse the construction of new tank farms as well as the relocation of some of the existing depots.
He noted that these would result in the immediate development of import facilities in the Akodo Beach area, as well as operators gaining access to the deep-water facilities and free trade zone.
The Apapa area housed the petroleum depots of both the major marketers and independent depot operators, which in recent times have been assisting government with the storage of imported products and distribution of same, to various regions of the country.
This followed the vandalisation of petroleum pipelines, which transported petroleum products to designated depots in the country.
Speaking on the Folawiyo fire, he said, �It is a sad thing because the fire damaged a lot of things. The damage to the depot was minimal because there were a lot of safety measures in the depot.�
The Folawiyo depot was gutted by fire on Thursday night, as one of the trucks, which was not properly calibrated, was loading Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), resulting into a spill.
In an attempt to remedy the situation, a driver of another truck, which was in one of the seven arm loading gantry, ignited the engine of his truck, which sparked some fire that gutted the entire loading gantry of the depot.