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The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has lamented the decrepit state of petroleum products storage facilities in Apapa, Lagos, calling for their urgent upgrade to meet industry standard.

The Chief Executive Officer of NMDPRA, Mr. Farouk Ahmed, expressed the concern yesterday during an inspection tour of some petroleum products storage facilities operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and oil marketers under the aegis of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN).

Ahmed said most of the facilities had not been upgraded in the last 25 years, adding that a lot of rehabilitation work needed to be done to upgrade them.

He maintained that such rehabilitation and upgrade would help to enhance safety and smooth distribution of petroleum products across the country.

“There have been a lot of complaints about the facilities being dilapidated and need some upgrade for efficient delivery of petroleum products.

“There is a lot of work to be done to upgrade these facilities. We went round some of the marketers’ facilities and we saw that most of them have not been upgraded in 20 to 25 years”, he said.

Accompanied by NNPC’s Group Executive Director, Downstream, Mr. Adeyemi Adetunji, and some MOMAN members, the NMDPRA boss inspected the storage facilities of Ardova Plc, TotalEnergies Plc, and that of OVH Energy Marketing Comp

Describing Lagos as one of the key areas through which Nigeria receives imports of petroleum products, Ahmed noted that Apapa was also one of the major facilities for offloading of vessels and trucking out petroleum products to other parts of the country.

He said the visit was in line with the agency’s oversight responsibility to see the reality on ground, pointing out that some marketers were already upgrading their facilities.

According to him, “There are a lot of expansion projects going on in terms of storage facilities for petroleum products and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), as well as truck out facilities.

“So, it is very good to see the upgrade in those areas but generally speaking, the jetty needs a lot of work to be done in order to meet up with the new safety requirements.”

Ahmed, however, assured that the authority would be having quarterly meetings with the marketers to review areas of concern that require improvement.

In his remarks, Executive Secretary, MOMAN, Mr. Clement Isong, thanked Ahmed and his team for visiting the facilities to gather first-hand information on the challenges facing the marketers.

“This is the sort of regulator we have been looking for. The one that supports us, that supports our business, works with us, feels our pain and does what he can do to help us,” Isong stated.