By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Terminal Manager, Port Harcourt Depot of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited NNPCL, Mr Molokwu Chike, said that they have been begging tanker drivers to come and load petroleum products at the depot.
Molokwu Chike, said this on Sunday after taking journalists on a guided tour of Port Harcourt Refinery and depot loading bay at Eleme.
He said the tanker drivers have refused to come and load products despite the availability of all the petroleum products at the depot.
Chike said that the depot has 11 loading arms that have the capacity to load a minimum of 15 trucks in 15 minutes.
“We have been begging the tanker drivers to come and load petroleum products they refused. But after much appeal they have agreed to come and load the products. Today is a weekend, that is the reason why they are not turning up.
“If you give us 100 trucks today, we can evacuate it in less than five hours. So evacuation of petroleum products is not our problem, it’s tanker driver’s problem. We have been begging them since yesterday to come and take products. Just this morning after pleading with them they accepted to come and load products.
“We have the capacity to discharge a minimum of 3 trucks in 15 minutes. So in summary we can discharge about 45 to 50 trucks in 2 to 3 hours. So if you look down there this is PPMC loading arms.
“It’s the same operational principle that we have acquired. We have, all together, 11 loading arms that are functional but it has a huge capacity to deliver. But we are using 3 at the moment and it’s very efficient. Each of the 3 has the capacity to load 3 trucks in 15 minutes.
When contacted, the Chairman of Petroleum Products Retails Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Grills Harry, said his members are ready and ever willing to buy products from the Port Harcourt refinery.
