NNPC commissions 4 petrol storage tanks at Mosinmi depot

Dr Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Tuesday commissioned four petrol storage tanks at Monsinmi depot in Ogun State to ease product distribution and operational constraint.

Beru said that commissioning project of the dismantling and reconstruction of tank 13 with the rehabilitation of tank 11, 12 and 22 was relevant towards restoration of strategic oil and gas infrastructure.

According to him, Mosinmi depot was constructed in 1978 for storage and distribution of petroleum product to the western part of the country.

“ Unfortunately, tank 13 was gutted by fire in 1997 while tank 11, 12 and 22 have been in service for 23-years but their respective floating roofs collapsed at different times in 2001 and rendered them unserviceable.

“Non-usage of theses decrepit tanks imposed operational constraint to product storage and distribution in the Mosinmi area in turn negatively impacted the turn-around tome product vessels at Atlas Cove jetty with concomitant huge demurrage charges to NNPC,“ he said.

The NNPC GMD said that the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the tanks became necessary to restore the operational capacity of Mosinmi depot and ease product distribution across the western part of the country.

He said that the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the tanks was completed by Adano Engineering Company on Sept. 2011 in line with the contract agreement.

He said that the project was completed on scheduled despite the challenges posed by community restiveness, change in tariff by Nigeria Custom Service with resultant unforeseen delays and increases in duties.

“The project has come to restored the original combined storage of 87.70 million litres for the four tanks, which has also increased by 220,000 litres.

“This combined storage capacity represents over 54 per cent of the total storage capacity for petrol at Mosinmi depot and has significantly enhanced storage capacity nationwide,’’ NAN quotes Baru saying.

In his remarks, the Group General Manger, Engineering and Technology Division, NNPC, Mr Farouk Sa’id said that the project was awarded to indigenous local engineering and was satisfactorily completed.

Sa’id lauded Federal Government initiative towards empowering indigenous companies to strive in the engineering and oil and gas industry.

According to him, the project was supervised and it melts the required best industry standard, product would be loaded through automated machine.