The Nigerian Railway Corporation said it has the capacity to carry 900,000 litres of fuel at once with tank farm wagons. Director of Operations, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Niki Ali said that the Corporation has the capacity to meet the demand of moving petroleum products provided the oil marketers are willing to partner with the Corporation.
Alli was speaking at a press briefing in Lagos to clear the grey areas regarding the petroleum tank wagons parked at Ebute-Metta area of the state. He advised the oil marketers to take advantage of the available tank wagons to patronise the Corporation.
The Director stated that the Corporation has signed Memorandum of Understanding with some stakeholders and that within a month or two evacuation of fuel by rail to other parts of the Nigeria would commence. He noted further that each of the 40 pressurised tank wagons in the Corporation’s fleet has capacity to convey 45,000 liters of fuel.
He identified some of the problems militating against loading of fuel from the tank farm at Apapa to the wagons to the attitude of the Depot owners to work on their facilities as well as test their integrity. According to him, the Corporation has expressed willingness to encourage prospective tank farm owners by providing land on lease for building of tank farms within its jurisdiction.
He also noted that discussions are on-going with owners of tank farms linked by rail to allow those whose facilities are not linked by rail throughput to access their tank farms and load fuel. Ali averred that the Corporation has demonstrated capacity to distribute AGO by using the tank wagons to distribute AGO to some out stations of the Corporation.
He also said that prior to the conclusion of discussions with tank farm owners and Independent oil marketers on loading of fuel from the tank farms to tank wagons, the Corporation would commence discussions with Greenfield Nigeria Limited with a view to see how AGO could be transferred from Barges to tank wagons.
Ali attributed delay in the commencement of movement of fuel by rail in recent times to the issue of safety because fuel is highly combustible and issues related to safety must be sorted out.
