The Products and Pipelines Marketing Company (PPMC) was established in 1988 as a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to ensure that Nigerians irrespective of where they live, have access to uninterrupted fuel supply. But the pipes that should make the flow seamless have gone dry and abandoned. The storage depots, which the pipes were meant to feed, have also become tanks for waste materials. The distribution of products to filling stations in tankers has been the saving grace and the Southwest, especially Lagos State, where these facilities work, now bears the burden. EMEKA UGWUANYI takes a critical look at invasion of fuel-laden trucks on the roads.
With over 5,120 kilometres of pipeline network, 21 depots and a couple of booster pump stations and jetties, petroleum products should be available and accessible to Nigerians across the country.
But, this has not been the case as negligence and vandalism have taken a toll on these legacy assets built by the Federal Government to take fuel from the 445,000 barrels per day capacity refineries.
Besides, many of the depots have become storage facilities for waste, owing to disuse.
Apart from depots in the Southwest, most of the depots belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have gone moribund. The development led to the use of trucks for the bridging of products to other states of the federation from the few functional depots.
There has been influx of fuel tankers into Apapa, Lagos, where most of the private sector-owned depots are located. The tank farms are concentrated in the axis because of the Sea Ports at Apapa.
Indiscriminate parking of the trucks as they await their turns to load products often creates unimaginable gridlock, causes man-hour losses, stalls socio-economic activities and endangers the lives of others.
Many, who have property in Apapa, no longer have value for their investments as the perennial traffic has forced businesses out of the area, even as not a few residents have abandoned their apartments for more serene and quiet neighbourhoods.
The reactivation of the refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, has exposed the integrity of some of the pipelines. Many of them could no longer withstand pressure as the facilities resume production in an effort to cut importation of refined products. They lost integrity due to age, and lack of maintenance. But, the major problem has been the menace of vandalism.
Oil thieves and economic saboteurs have been frustrating the efforts of the Pipelines Products and Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and owners of the pipelines. The vandals return to rupture the pipes to scoop fuel, almost after their repair by the authorities.
As at last month, the Federal Government said no fewer than 16 of the 21 depots were in working condition but that there were no pipes to supply products to them. Hence, they have been idle.
The immediate past Managing Director, Prince Haruna Momoh, confirmed this at a forum in Lagos. He said 80 per cent of the pipeline network for petroleum products distribution had been vandalised.
According to him, the damaged pipelines have been the bane of the chaotic traffic situation and unending gridlock on Apapa road, as thousands of tankers have no option than to besiege the depots at Apapa to load petroleum products en route other parts of the country.
Last week, the NNPC said it has shut down its refineries in Port Harcourt and Kaduna due to crude supply problems related to recent attacks on pipelines in the Niger Delta by militants.
“The plants were shut simultaneously on Sunday (penultimate) after the Bonny-Okrika crude supply line to the Port Harcourt refinery and the Escravos in Warri. The crude supply line to the Kaduna refinery suffered breaches,” the NNPC said.
The Nation learnt that before the Kaduna pipeline was fixed, all refined products from the facility were either trucked out, or transported to the depots on barges.
Momoh admitted that pipeline vandalism and rupture was hampering seamless distributing of products through existing pipelines.
He said the twin-challenge of pipeline vandalism and rupture due to age, coupled with the limited number of jetties, account for the high number of vessels on the high sea, waiting to berth. According to him, the inadequate berthing space prevents timely receipts of products and this leads to increasing costs incurred on demurrage and other charges.
The depots
Apart from private depots and jetties, the Federal Government owns and manages storage depot system with mainline and booster pump stations. All these help the pipelines to enhance consumers’ access to products. These facilities, managed by the PPMC, are administered under five zones known as operations areas.
Each operation area has an administrative office under its control and such area is headed by an area manager. The five area offices are: Port Harcourt, Warri, Mosimi, Kaduna and Gombe.
The Port Harcourt area has under its jurisdiction: Port Harcourt depot; Okirika jetty; Aba, Enugu, Markudi and Calabar depots as well as Bonny export terminal. The Warri area office has under it, Warri depot, Warri Jetty, Benin depot, Abudu, Auchi and Lokoja pump stations, and Escravos terminal. The Mosimi area office has Mosimi depot, Atlas Cove Jetty and depot, Satellite (Ejigbo Lagos), Ibadan depot, Ore, and Ilorin depots.
Under the Kaduna area office are Kaduna depot, Abaji, Izom pump stations, Minna, Suleja depots and Sarkin Pawa, and Zaria pump stations, Kano and Gusau depots. The Gombe area office has Jos, Gombe, Yola depots, Biu pump station and Maiduguri depot.
The Managing Director of PPMC, Mrs. Esther Nnamdi Ogbue said the government has carried out an impact assessment on the depots with a view to determining their level of viability and how to resuscitate them.
Mrs. Ogbue, who was on an official visit to the depot at Mosimi, noted that efforts were being made to reactivate the depots. The strategic locations of the depots and the huge volumes of fuel they were pumping before they went moribund, informed government’s resolve to fix them.
She said: “In places like Makurdi and Yola, petroleum products have not been pumped from depots in those areas in the last 10 years, and that means the government has to move products with trucks from Calabar to Enugu to Aba to Yola.”
Mrs. Ogbue also stated that the government is not leaving any stone unturned to ensure that the pipelines are effectively managed and further benefit the operators, especially marketers, who have the duty selling fuel to consumers.
Besides the economic and social impacts these dysfunctional pipes and depots have on the populace, the Federal Government loses huge money yearly on their repair.
Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former minister of Petroleum Resources, said about $5.7 billion was being spent yearly to fix the pipelines, damaged by vandals and oil thieves.
Restoration measures
In the past two years, the Federal Government has been exploring the use of Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) and use of modern technologies such as digital mechanism that will connect the pipelines with sensors to alert whenever any part of the pipeline is being vandalised, as well as mounting intense surveillance and pigging. The government has started replacing ageing pipes.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, who doubles as NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, said a plan to unbundle the PPMC has concluded plans to create a sustainable solution. One unit, which he said, will focus solely on pipelines, will ensure the timely repair and replacement of faulty pipes. The unit will ensure that refined products get to the depots across the country.
“The PPMC would be split into a pipelines company that would focus primarily on the maintenance of the over 5,000 kilometres of pipelines of the company; a storage company that would maintain all the over 23 depots and a products marketing company that would market and sell petroleum products,” he said.
After the unbundling, the government will contemplate the privatisation of pipelines to minimize perennial vandalism and ensure availability of products across the country at the right price.
In the short-term, all the fuel trucks must be tagged and tracked, warning that any untagged trucks and those not fixed with trackers, will not be allowed to load products at the depots. The measure, if implemented, will check diversion of products.
The minister said that the government would consider refinery models to determine how best to tackle the problems of the nation’s four refineries currently working below optimal levels.
According to him, when the refineries work at installed capacities, and their products get to the depots, it will take away many off the roads and drastically reduce pressure on the depots in Lagos.
He said: “We are going to be looking seriously at the refinery models. How do we deal with it? How do we bring people to assist us on technical and investment basis to get these refineries in much more consistent and permanent basis?”
Kachikwu also spoke of a plan to considere community surveillance, saying his ministry and the NNPC may engage the communities where the pipelines have right of way, to monitor and secure them.
NNPC spokesman Ohi Alegbe also told The Nation that the Corporation has kicked-off the repair and replacement of old pipes.
According to him, the Kaduna pipeline has been fixed and supplying crude to the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC).
Other pipeline projects, he said, are ongoing. He, however, declined to list them. “The NNPC doesn’t want to make noise about them, so that vandals don’t go to damage them.”
