The Department of Petroleum Resources has started the implementation of Trucking Policy to curb product adulteration being perpetrated through tanker trucks in the country.
A DPR document made available to our correspondent in Lagos, on Wednesday, said the oil and gas industry regulator had embarked on a number of projects with the aim of putting in place infrastructure that would enable it to achieve its vision of becoming a leading regulator in the oil and gas sector.
DPR said the implementation of Trucking Policy Project was one of the projects outlined in the transformation process.
The document said, “The petroleum tanker trucks play a very important role in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Over 70 per cent of petroleum product movement across the nation is done by tanker trucks.”
The oil and gas regulator said tanker trucks had also been used to evacuate crude oil from well heads to flow stations by the Marginal Field Operators recently.
DPR, however, said tanker trucks used for transportation of petroleum products were most times the source of product adulteration, adding that some drivers siphoned products and replaced the volume with a comparably cheaper product without considering the product quality.
“There have been cases where the siphoned volume was replaced with water. These tanker trucks are often involved in diversion of petroleum products to illegal destinations even across the border and are also used by vandals for evacuation of crude oil and products from vandalized pipelines,” DPR said.
According to DPR, the vision of the Trucking Policy project is “to standardise and regulate the process of transportation of petroleum through tanker trucks using available best practices in the industry.”
DPR outlined the objective of the policy to include standardization of tanker truck design and construction, creation of a database and information on petroleum tanker trucks and their operations (this will be available for planning and other purposes), and enhancement of better service delivery between stakeholders and transporters.
The DPR added that the policy would help prevent tanker trucks from being used for illegal operations, while instituting orderliness in trucking activities at the depot.
“The project, which is currently in the second phase, has trained about eighty adhoc staff, captured and uploaded screened data on about 5,700 tanker trucks into the database and built the National Control Centre at the third floor of the DPR Abuja Zonal Office.
“Remote monitoring of petroleum tanker truck activities all over the country would be done from this Centre, with the Server in Lagos on standby, when commissioned.”
Defending further the need for the policy, DPR lamented that the country’s pipeline systems were continuously under threat of vandalism, adding that millions of litres of petroleum product and crude oil were lost annually through the pipelines.
These, it said, had led to increase on reliance on tanker trucks for movement of product and crude oil from one location to another.
“It has been observed that some of the tanker trucks used for this purpose are not in good state and often breaks down along the way. The breakdown of tanker trucks had led to many accidents with resulting loss of lives and properties,” the DPR added.