Operators of petroleum tankers in the country have for years been having running battles with the authorities especially along the Oshodi-Apapa expressway. Both the federal and Lagos State governments hold them responsible for all the ugly things that happen to and on the roads. Now, they can heave a sigh of relief. This is because the Number Two Nigerian leader, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has inaugurated the biggest petroleum tank farm in Sub-Saharan Africa at Ibafun, Ogun State.
Vice-President Osinbajo, who noted that the Peteolex tank farm will create more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs, argued that private capital should lead the economic revolution which the government has designed for Nigeria.
Reports say that the tank farm, which is built on 13, 000 hectares of land, at Ibafun, Ogun State, has the capacity to store more than 300 million litres of petrol and is billed to play host to a refinery.
Focusing on the significance of the project which is driven by the private sector, Vice-President Osinbajo said the federal government was set to create an incentive regime to encourage industrialisation.
On his part, the initiator of the project, Segun Adebutu, said he was propelled to come up with the idea due to the infrastructure gap in the oil and gas sector and to reduce the traffic gridlock along the Apapa-Badagry expressway.
A former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, who was one of the dignitaries at the event, while appealing to government officials in charge of oil and gas in the country to support the project, said it would be a shame if the facility was not fully utilized.
The tank farm has the capacity to take more than four thousand tankers without traffic gridlock.
