Oil
marketers in the country are exploiting loopholes in the regulation of
their business to overload their tankers, which are meant to convey
petroleum products from the depots to dispensing points like filling
stations.
Investigations by our correspondent
revealed that some tankers now load as much as 50,000 litres of
petroleum products from the depots without being questioned. The
accepted standard is 33,000 litres.
The development has resulted in the tankers damaging the road networks across the country, and being susceptible to accidents.
Normally, tankers are checked for
overloading at the depots using weighbridges. This measure, however, no
longer serves the purpose for which it was introduced as errant truck
owners now bribe their way through. It was learnt that in most cases,
errant truck owners were meant to pay an official sum if their tankers
carried excess load.
The weighbridges are meant to detect excess load on tankers, with a recommendation that the excess be dropped.
A tanker driver awaiting to load product
at a depot in Apapa, Lagos, told our correspondent that a good number of
the trucks seen awaiting in the queue were from the North, East and
South-South regions.
According to him, the rush to Lagos is because products are cheaper in the state compared to other parts of the country.
The Executive Secretary, Major Oil
Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, said that in most
cases, the activities of union members at the depots were not allowing
depot operators to carry out proper checks as required.
According to him, stopping a tanker for
abusing laid down codes can result in strikes by the unions and possible
blacklisting of the depots.
Experts have called for the proper
implementation of the Petroleum Trucking Policy Project by the
Department of Petroleum Resources, saying the move would make the
haulage of petroleum products across the country safe and fast.
According to the regulator, over 70 per
cent of petroleum products movement across the length and breadth of the
country is currently done through tanker trucking.
The country resorted to petroleum
products bridging because the pipeline systems have been in very poor
conditions due to incessant attacks by vandals.
According to recent figures by the
Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, millions of litres of refined
products and crude oil are lost annually to pipeline vandals.
While admitting the problem, the DPR
said, “These tankers, with their shapes ranging from rectangular to
spherical, do not have standards for their capacities nor limits to the
volume they can convey, while on the roads.
“These anomalies have regularly led to
rollover of overloaded tanker trucks, spilling of petroleum products and
the resultant fire outbreak as recently witnessed at a section of Port
Harcourt in Rivers State.”
Globally, transportation of petroleum products by motor vehicles or railroad tank cars is regulated by government agencies.
Agencies such as the United States
Department of Transport and the Canadian Transport Commission enacted
regulations that govern the design, construction, safety devices,
testing, preventive maintenance, inspection and operation of tank trucks
and tank cars used in transporting petroleum products across their
countries.