Port terminal operators under the aegis of Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) has called on the government to relocate petroleum tank farms from Apapa, Lagos.
Speaking at a breakfast meeting in Lagos recently, Chairman of the association, Princess Vicky Hastrup said that the activities of the tank farms have largely affected the inflow and out flow of cargoes from the nations’ port.
She warned about the danger that the continuous operation of the tank farms pose to port system, even as she appealed to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council to use its new regulatory powers to cause the change.
“The owners of these tank farms are very powerful in Nigeria, but we don’t want congestion around the port environment, it makes it difficult for customers bringing in their trucks to load”
“It is only in Nigeria that you have tank farms located within the port environment, this is very dangerous and those tank farms should be relocated”, she stressed.
Hastrup lamented the delay experienced by container-laden trucks to access the port due to the bad roads and the activities going on at the expansive tank farms in Apapa.
She pointed out that, “in the concession agreement, time is allocated to the period when trucks will come into the port, load cargo and go out, but now coming from Apapa and Tin Can Port is very difficult”.