Petroleum products marketers in Abia State are jubilating over the resuscitation of the Osisioma depot of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Aba.

A marketer who spoke with Transport & Business Express heaved a sigh of relief that economic activities would boom once more at the depot after years of inactivity.

The depot was closed to business following rampant cases of pipeline vandalism by oil thieves.

“Personally, I am very happy about the reopening of the Osisioma depot for business. Not just only me, every other petroleum marketer from Aba Unit is very happy and, more especially, people of Abia State. We can’t wait to see depot working again,” said Kalu Amah, Managing Director ofWillcom Petroleum Nigeria Ltd.

“As it is now, we have been told that there is PMS in Aba Depot. In fact, as am talking to you now, marketers are raising draft for the product. We are hopeful that by Monday, the loading will commence,” Amah added.

He noted that lack of products at the depot for a very long timehas affected the marketers in Abia negatively. “About 70 per cent of us were out of business,” he said, adding:

“As a marketer, for the past three years, I have not been given any allocation for my station. We have been struggling, buying from private depots.

“The reopening of the Osisioma depot will bring down the stress we go through to access the products, bridging from Lagos, Calabar, buying from Port Harcourt: all these stress will go down and it will even affect the market price because the products will be available any day, any time for people to buy. I assure you, there be will serious competition on pricing because cost of transportation will be cheaper for us, the marketers. I tell you that if we lift from the Aba depot from our quota, that means we can sell below N97.”

Amah advocated adequate security to forestall any acts of pipeline vandalism, stressing that it was the duty of all stake holders to achieve this.

“I know it will cost a lot to guard the pipelines and I urge the government to set up a task force made up of the security agencies that would patrol the pipelines 24 hours, especially when the refinery is pumping products. At such moments, they should inform the task force so that its members would remain alert to ward off pipeline vandals,” he suggested.

The Willcom Petroleum boss commended the state governor, Chief Theodore Orji, for ensuring that the Osisoma depot was back on stream. He also commended the NNPC management and IPMAN and every stakeholder who contributed to reviving the depot.

Photo Caption
Kalu Amah, MD,Willcom Petroleum.