Tank farm business and environmental risk to Apapa metropolis

Apapa is a big industrial city in Lagos that warehouses the nation’s two biggest economic gateways (Apapa and Tin-Can Island Ports) where over 70 percent of the nation’s import and export businesses take place. The city also plays host to oil tank farm facilities owned by oil majors such as Mobil, Total, Integrated Oil, MRS, NIPCO and several others that are licensed by the Federal Government to operate such facilities that enable importation of refined petroleum products into the country.

Also, Apapa as an industrial city has companies like Nigerian Flour Mill, BUA refineries, shipping companies, among several others. With the presence of these businesses, which cut across tank farms, ports and oil jetty operations as well as industries, business activities at the heart of Apapa are always on high ebb, resulting to high human and vehicular traffic.

Recently, these businesses have been under threat due to the unbearable traffic gridlocks occasioned by disorderly movement of trucks that move cargoes in and out of the ports. The worst case is the movement of oil tankers that consistently queue on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway as well as other port access roads to enter the oil jetties located round Apapa.

The situation has become very alarming such that owners of businesses in Apapa find it difficult to get to their offices on daily basis. The man-hour loss on the road has become very worrisome to port users and operators around the port environs.

BusinessDay investigations have shown that apart from the alarming man-hour loss, the road has been known for increasing rate of accident that results from bad road, gridlocks or upturning of containers on commuters. Also, transport fares within Apapa metropolis are continuously escalating due to regular increase in cost of transportation by motorists, truck and tanker operators.

Despite these challenges, new oil tank farm facilities are finding their way into the already congested Apapa city. Some are yet to be licensed while some have been given licences by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Petroleum to build new facilities in Apapa.

One of such intending entrants into Apapa, according to findings, is NIPCO plc, an oil and gas company as well as an oil tank farm operator, which plans to expand its facilities and build a new 1.5-km petroleum pipeline at the waterfront of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) dockyard in Apapa.

The company is reported to have concluded arrangement to lay a 1.5-km oil pipeline from Waziri jetty across the waterfront at NPA dockyard to NIPCO plc jetty. Environmental experts, who spoke to our correspondent, were of the view that the proposed project could have serious ecological side-effects due to the fact that the presence of pipelines and allied activities in the Lagos channel could hinder effective vessel navigation on the waterways. They added that it could also result to water pollution or explosion owing to the fact that Apapa dockyard has only one entry and exit point, which could be very dangerous in case a of any disaster.

Speaking to BusinessDay in his office recently, Jimoh Umar, president, Senior Staff Association of Communications, Transport and Corporations (SSACTAC), criticised the project, noting that if NIPCO was allowed to go on with the project, it could cripple port business around that axis such that repair of ships, tug boats and pilot cutters that normally takes place at the foremost Continental Shipyard located at the dockyard would be severely affected.

“The pipeline project at the Apapa dockyard will further block the navigational channel of about 1.5km. As a result, any attempt to check vessels and NPA tug boats will lead to collision with the pipe and this could result to explosion and oil spillage,” Umar explained.

He forecast that such situation had the capacity to mitigate the benefits of port reform by bringing back the era of congestion at the port where vessels queued on the waterway waiting to berth. “Congestion will likely result to high-level cargo diversion to ports in the neighbouring countries that are more user-friendly than Nigerian ports. This is because disabling the dockyard will make it difficult for NPA to discharge its piloting responsibility effectively,” he added.

Umar noted that the project could pose high environmental risk to not only businesses but also to a good number of lives and property located in the Apapa environs that are already suffering as a result of the problems created by the existing tank farms. He further suggested that the promoters of the project should look for green-field areas like Snake Island and Ogogoro village to build the tank farm and pipeline just like Oando did at Takwa Bay.

Vicky Haastrup, executive vice chairman, ENL Consortium, for her part, said the concentration of oil jetties and depots within the port environment was dangerous to the port businesses, saying this had a multiplier effect on the total cost of doing business at the port, and that it was why trucking was also very expensive compared to what it used to be in those days. Today, people who are in the truck business are not able to do more than one trip in a day and to even access the terminals in the port takes a number of days, which is not good for the system.

“We are really passionate about ensuring that these oil jetties are relocated. It is not good for our business and it is never done in any part of the world. It is frustrating to get into the port environment to do business because of these tank farms,” she lamented.