As Nigerians continue to grapple with long queues at petrol stations and the attendant stress, hardship and socio-economic disruptions and dislocations, stakeholders in the oil and gas sector have advised that some measures should be adopted to solve the problem.

They stated that even when Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical that was built at the cost of about $20 billion at Free Zone, Lekki,Lagos and the Port Harcourt Refinery of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) begin to sell petrol, scarcity and queues will still continue in some areas if there are no functional strategic depots and pipelines in the country.

Depots

Nigeria has 21 depots, but many, if not all of them, are non-functional. The depots are Port Harcourt depot in Rivers State built in 1965 (the oldest); Ibadan depot, Oyo State – built in 1975; Kaduna depot, Kaduna State – built in 1977; Mosimi depot, Ogun State (1978); Lagos depot, Lagos State (1979); Ilorin depot, Kwara State (1981); Minna depot, Niger State (1983); Suleja depot, Niger State (1985); Kano depot, Kano State (1989); Gusau depot, Zamfara State (1991); Maiduguri depot, Borno State (1993); Gombe depot, Gombe State (1995); Makurdi depot, Benue State (1997); Abuja depot, Federal Capital Territory – (2001); Calabar Depot, Cross River State (2003); Umuahia Depot, Abia State (2005); Enugu Depot, Enugu State (2007); Benin depot, Edo State (2009); Warri depot, Delta State (2011); Ore depot, Ondo State (2013) and Mosinmi depot, Ogun State (2015).

An energy analyst, Sanni Madaki, said it was sad that these depots were allowed to be dilapidated. In an interview with New Telegraph, he said the sorry state of the depots had inflicted great hardship on Nigerians, inhibited business operations of marketers, denied them of profits negatively affected the sector.

He called on the government to make the depots functional again. He suggested that if the government, for whatever reason, is unable to fix the depots, a private-public-partnership arrangement could be explored.

Madaki said: “The bad state of the depots have contributed greatly to the recurring queues in some far away states. It has also made marketers lose profits and led to stress on Nigerians. The resultant fuel scarcity has also dealt a big blow to business activities of the people.

“It is surprising that the government allowed such important national assets to be wasted. If the government cannot manage or rehabilitate them, the private sector should be allowed to partner the government and get the depots back in share so as to boost business activities and improve the lives of the people.”

PENGASSAN

President, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Festus Osifo, said the perennial fuel scarcity in some states of the country was exacerbated by non-availability of functional depots in those areas or nearby states.

He said that if the depots were working, there would always be a backup in the event of unforeseen circumstances in the distribution chain of petroleum products.

He decried that many suggestions to the government on the way to stop the recurring fuel crisis were turned down, thereby leading to an energy crisis.

He stated that if those depots were working and the government pumps in enough fuel as reserves, the nation will not suffer long queues again.

He stated that whenever there is an international or internal challenge in the energy market, the reserves in the depots with many weeks or months sufficiency of petrol would mitigate such vagaries. Osifo, who is also the President, Trade

Union Congress, called on the government to pay more attention and invest more in the energy sector, including in the distribution value chain. He noted that the nation had suffered uncountable losses to disrup

Nigeria has 21 depots but many, if not all of them, are non-functiona

tion in petrol distribution. Cautioning against allowing the energy sector, including the downstream sector, to suffer, the oil expert noted that energy security was key to national security and industrial revolution.

Osifo said: “We all know the problem of the perennial queues. We addressed our National Executive Council sometime in April. We said that this queue is going to continue. If you solve it today, you can solve it temporarily but tomorrow, it is going to resurface.

It is because of the failures of our pipelines. If our pipelines were working, things would not have been like that. “Today we have about 21 depots in Nigeria cut across the nook and crannies of the country.

So if those depots were working, you would not have these kinds of logistics challenges. Imagine, how many trucks that need to leave Calabar, Port Harcourt. And Lagos and from Calabar, you are moving trucks to Borno, Yobe, so it is a problem.

“When we did a study, part of what we looked at is: those depots that we have, can’t we salvage them. If we salvage those depots, we have a strategic reserve. Today as a country we have strategic game reserves.

“So in terms of energy security, what we have said is that, if today, whenever this challenge is solved, why can we, when things are okay and we have the right quantities of crude, we can ship a lot of them to those depots if they are well maintained and functional.

“That is part of what we have recommended to the government viz-avis NNPC.” He added: “If you have a depot in Zamfara and another one in Yobe, and when you have this PMS, you could bring in excessive quantities, then you move the extra to these depots.

So that whenever you have logistics in Lagos, Calabar etc, you could be released from these depots. That is what is done all over the world.

“If there was a problem in Kogi and you had strategic depots,the one in Suleja, for instance, is working, what you would have done is to use the one in Suleja to feed the north central.

If you have one in Yobe and it is working, from there, you can feed the north east.so we must have strategic reserves for PMS.” The PENGASSSN boss also said that Nigeria did not have reserves for imported products.

He said it was necessary for the country to have strategic fuel reserves to guard against vagaries in the downstream sector. He warned that there will still be international and domestic challenges in the oil sector.

According to him, if the depots were not rehabilitated and the country had strategic reserves, even if the Dangote refinery and the Port Harcourt refinery begin to sell fuel, there will still be distribution challenges such that the depots, if they are functional, will mitigate those challenges.

Osifo said: “We do not have reserves for imported refined products. That is the challenge. If there is an international problem, from day one we are shut out. Where we keep those products when you import them, they are moved to tank farms.

“Where you have tank farms, majorly are in Port Harcourt, Calabar and Lagos. When you import these products there, from there you distribute into the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.

When there are issues down south, you cannot move these products from the north but should we have strategic reserves, then you keep those products there so that when there is the need, you take the products from there.

“Imagine you have a reserve that can keep 30 days sufficiency, or at best we have a reserve that can keep three months sufficiency, whenever you have any challenge locally or internationally, you could tap into your reserves and you could be able to service the country.

“That is one of the things that we have proposed so that these logistics challenges will not be happening every day. Even when we produce today.

Let’s assume today, Dangote Refinery is working, Port Harcourt refinery, Warri Refinery, they are all working, you do not have a refinery in the North East.

“So what happens is that if you do not service those depots, around that zone, you are going to have challenges. That is one of the solutions that we have proposed to the government beyond the challenges we have today from the mother vessel to the daughter vessel, bunkering issues.

Last line

“Even if the queues go away in the next one week, we cannot guarantee that after another one month, it will not return. We will be in this problem until what is right.

“Either we fix the pipelines from those coastal areas so that we can feed the hinterland. Or we have these strategic reserves across the length and breadth of the county, maybe in the six geopolitical zones. Until we have that, we are in for it. The problem may be temporarily solved but I cannot guarantee that it will not return.”