Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, will next month commence the evacuation of petroleum products from tank farms and oil depots located in Apapa, Lagos by rail.
The corporation’s Director of Operations, Niyi Ali, at a press briefing in Lagos, expressed confidence that with the development, gridlock that characterised the Apapa area and Tin-Can Island, which host the two largest seaports in Nigeria would soon be a thing of the past.
“Railway links to the tank farms for lifting of petroleum products by oil marketers will be completed by this month.
Some oil marketing companies have already started moving Automotive Gas Oil, AGO, by rail, but not yet petroleum because of safety issues. But we are working round the clock to ensure that we enter the next phase of lifting.
Recently, the Nigerian railway moved its first commercial quantity of diesel out of Apapa. We moved 12 wagons of AGO from Lagos to Kano. We moved 528,000 litres of AGO by rail.
“Moving AGO is a bit easier because you don’t need that amount of safety considerations. So, we can trans-load from road tankers to rail tankers and that is what we will continue to do. As time goes on, we will see an increment in not just the amount of AGOs, but also other products. In the AGO movement, we used a third party called Connect Rail, whicc brokered the deal between the Nigeria Railways and the product marketer, Eterna Oil Plc,” he said.
