By Clara Nwachukwu

Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, the regulator of oil and gas operations in Nigeria, has instituted the monitoring of trucks bearing crude or refined petroleum products, with a view to checking products adulteration, diversion and other unethical practices.

The Implementation of Trucking Policy Project, TPP, is in line with the ongoing transformation programme aimed at making the agency a world class petroleum industry regulator.

Explaining the rationale for the trucking project, DPR said that this is meant “to standardise and regulate the process of transportation of petroleum through tanker trucks using available best practices in the industry.”

Need for monitoring

DPR argued that petroleum tanker trucks play a very important role in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Over 70 percent of petroleum products movement across the nation is done by tanker trucks. Tanker trucks have also been used to evacuate crude oil from wellheads to flow stations by the Marginal Field Operators, MFOs, recently.

“However, tanker trucks used for transportation of petroleum products are most times the source of product adulteration since some drivers siphon away products and replace the volume with a comparably cheaper product without considering the product quality.

“There have been cases where the siphoned volume was replaced with water! These tanker trucks are often involved in diversion of petroleum products to illegal destinations even across the border and are also used by vandals for evacuation of crude oil and products from vandalised pipelines.”

The regulator noted that trucking became imperative in products movement in view of the constant vandalism of products’ pipelines across the country. It noted that the development had led to huge financial losses on account of the millions of litres of petroleum products and crude oil, which are lost annually through these pipelines.

It said, “These had led to increase on reliance on tanker trucks for movement of product and crude oil from one location to another. It has been observed that some of the tanker trucks used for this purpose are not in good state and often breaks down along the way. The breakdown of tanker trucks had led to many accidents with resulting loss of lives and properties.”

Streamlining types of trucks Apart from checking unethical practices, DPR further noted that the trucking policy is required to streamline the types of trucks used for distribution purposes. “Petroleum tanker trucks of various shapes and capacities are found on our roads every day. Their shapes range from rectangular to spherical, and there is neither a standard for their capacities nor limits to the volume they can convey while on the roads.

“These had led to roll-over of load tanker trucks, spilling of petroleum products, and fire claiming so many lives. This scenario has been a regular occurrence especially as the states of our roads continue to get worse due to lack of maintenance.”

The regulator enumerated the objectives of the policy to include:

*Standardise tanker truck design and construction.

* Create a database and make information on petroleum tanker trucks and their operations available for planning and other purposes.

* Enhance better service delivery between stakeholders and transporters

* Continuously keep petroleum tanker trucks in view and prevent them from being used for illegal operations.

* Enhance tanker truck usage and road users’ safety.

* Institute orderliness in trucking activities at the Depots.

The project, which is currently in the second phase, has trained about 80 eighty ad hoc staff and captured and uploaded screened data on about 5,700 tanker trucks into the database.

The regulator is also building a National Control Centre, NCC, located in the DPR Abuja Zonal Office. “Remote monitoring of petroleum tanker truck activities all over the country would be done from this Center, with the Server in Lagos on standby, when commissioned,” it added.

Ongoing regulatory transformation

Recalled that in September last year,the regulator began what it described as DPR Transformation Team, D-TT. Prior to this, its Extended Leadership Team, ELT, held a strategic planning workshop in March 2012, to acquaint staff on the transformation journey, with a view to soliciting their support for the transformation success.

The implementation of programme is based on a multi-approach predicated on Performance Management, Innovation and Technology, Culture & Change Management, Human Capital Management, and Risk Management.

Having set up a 12-member transformation team in April 2012 that is multi-functional and non-hierarchical, the team was mandated to achieve three major goals aimed at, strengthening the core of DPR’s activities; building on the strengthened core, in order to position as a world class organisation by the end of 2013.

DPR said the main objective of the transformation is to ensure, “To ensure the sustainable development of Nigeria’s Oil and Gas resources across the value chain for our stakeholders through effective regulation, while entrenching world class professionalism, accountability, and transparency.”

It noted that previous change initiatives had yielded positive results in the areas of Information Technology capability and empowerment, organisational structure redesign, staff deployment, and learning and development. The frameworks for the realisation of transformation success include work ethics, value system, public perception, communication, and service delivery, using people, skills, behaviours, work tools, and resources.