saajus:
Great question. They better run a rail line to his refinery.

I doubt it.
Rail is expensive and return on investment takes several years.
Businessmen like Dangote, Otedola etc wouldn't be interested.

Cutealexio:
I know the rail line will be extended to Apapa port but I don't think the same will be done for Lekki seaport where Dangote refinery is also located. If this is done it will help reduce the number of fuel trucks that plies that road because the refinery will surely attract oil depots to that area and the petroleum products can be the transported by rail instead, but also the road needs additional lanes, trailer parks and also proper traffic law enforcement to discourage law breakers. Heavy duty trucks should only be allowed to ply that road between 12am and 6am. As the place will be heavily industrialized and low paid workers can't afford to get an apartment there, the government should improve public transport infrastructure there (Additional BRTs and a bus station). I see a lot of developers using Dangote refinery to advertise their properties, I see this as a minus because no sane person will want to live right next to a refinery or an industrial area because of the effects on health

Thank you very much for the candid observation. i remember some years back when i told someone of the dangers of living close to a refinery. the real estare developer lashed out at me

Katlyst:



I am just speculating a compromise but only the future can tell.

I think I need to explain a couple of things.

1) The refinery and in fact the entire Free Trade Zone is in Ibeju Lekki. Lekki (Phase 1 to Abraham Adesanya) is to the west of Ibeju Lekki, but all the goods that are going to go to and from the Free Trade Zone are going to be moved through the north (through Ogun), east (through Ondo) and south (through the Atlantic Ocean. Lekki Peninsula will not be significantly affected.

2) There are already facilities to move goods through the north and south of the Free Trade Zone. Dangote has built his port. There is already a road that links Epe and Ijebu Ode (in Ogun State) and there is already a lighter terminal in Epe on the Lagos Lagoon. Dangote also already has a jetty on the lagoon.


3) Ondo State, Ogun State and Lagos State are building roads to the north and east of the facility. Will they be ready before the refinery is ready? Maybe, maybe not, nobody knows, just as nobody knows if the refinery will be ready before the roads. Remember that the refinery was originally scheduled for completion in 2016, then 2018, then 2019, then 2020 and now 2021. Nobody knows if it will be ready by 2021.

4) What happened in Apapa is not a failure of planning, but rather an example of the indiscipline of Nigerians (both in and out of government).

This gridlock in Apapa did not exist when I was a kid in the '70s and '80s, so I had to ask myself what changed. I wrote this while trying to find an answer, but I need to include two things that I previously left out.

The reason that they stopped piping is because militants break open the pipelines at Arepo in Ikorodu and steal the product.

The railway system collapsed in the 1990s. C2000 Aliko Dangote made a proposal to lease vacant land at Apapa Port for his flour business. There was an outcry when he was given the land. People said that the government was favouring him. In order to appear impartial the government then gave some land at the port to Flour Mills of Nigeria. The problem is that the land that was given to Flour Mills contains a portion of the railway and they built their factory right over the railway line, so no trains could run from Ebute Metta to the port. The government is now demolishing that factory as it constructs the new standard guage line.

naptu2:
[size=14pt]Solutions to the Apapa/Surulere traffic jam[/size].

People keep trying to treat the symptoms without addressing the root cause of the problem. In 2008 I spent 3 hours on one spot on Park Lane, Apapa. The driver even suggested that I should take a motorcycle back to the island, but I refused because I wanted to study the situation. Many measures have been taken since then (deployment of naval personnel, banning of tankers, construction of more tanker parks, etc) but none of them have solved the problem.

Things weren't always this way. So what has changed and what is the solution?

1) Tankers: - Previously petroleum products came into the country through the Atlas Cove Jetty and were piped to depots at Ejigbo (Lagos), Mosimi (Ogun), Ibadan (Oyo), Ore (Ondo) and Ilorin (Kwara). This was the busiest pipeline network in the country and Atlas Cove is the biggest jetty for the reception of imported petroleum products in the country. There are other pipeline networks like the Kaduna, Minna, Suleja, Kano and Gusau network.

Tanker trucks in Ogun State went to the Mosimi Depot to load petroleum products, tankers in Oyo State went to Ibadan, tankers in Ondo went to Ore, tankers in Kwara went to Ilorin, tankers in Lagos went to Apapa and Ejigbo, etc. There were also a few private depots (especially in Lagos) that stored petroleum products on behalf of the NNPC.

The problem is that the NNPC does not trust the pipelines due to frequent incidents of pipeline vandalisation. They don't want to lose any more product/money, so they stopped piping petroleum products to the depots. Instead of piping petroleum products to the depots, tanker trucks come from as far away as Ilorin to load petroleum products in Apapa. The fact that the Kaduna Refinery has also not been functioning has meant that trucks also come from Kaduna, Kano and other places in the north to load petroleum products in Apapa. These tankers, unlike Lagos based tankers, cannot return to their base to wait for their turn to load, so they park on the streets. There was a time earlier this year when there were 6,000 out of state tankers in Lagos at the same time!

The solution is to first secure the pipelines by using technology, such as distributed accoustic sensing (DAS) to detect vandals before they attack the pipelines, using drones and CCTV cameras to identify the vandals and providing vehicles like helicopters and pickup trucks to the security forces so that they can rapidly respond to alerts. All of these should be coordinated by a properly staffed and equipped comand and control centre and the government should ensure that the vandals are prosecuted. The NNPC can then start piping products to depots again. The second necessary measure is to ban out of state trucks from loading petroleum products in Lagos. Doing this will take away half of the cause of the gridlock at Apapa.

2) Freight trucks: - Nigerians seem to be so fascinated by high speed passenger trains (MagLev lines and electric locomotives), that they've forgotten how important freight trains are. A good chunk of the traffic jams we experience can be eliminated if goods are moved by rail rather than by articulated trucks. The wear and tear that the road suffers would be minimised and the number of accidents caused by these trucks would be reduced. Businesses would also benefit from this as they would not have to pay illegal taxes and bribes that are demanded by policemen and area boys on the road. There would also be better security which would greatly minimise the problem of armed robbery on our highways.

The colonialists recognised the importance of freight trains, so they created an arm of the Lagos-Kano line that runs from the Ebute Metta junction on to the platform at the Apapa Port. Thus goods (like Dantata's groundnuts) could be moved directly from Kano to the port for export. This arm of the railway line had many sidings to industrial concerns in the Ijora and Apapa area. For example, there was a siding that ran to the old power station in Ijora (with the twin smoke stacks) so that coal could be moved by freight train from Enugu to the power station. Unfortunately some people have built over the railway line to the power station (and over some of the other lines in the area) but there are still sidings that go to Nigerian Flour Mills, Mobil, Oando, Total, etc.

The railways can also help to solve the problem of distribution of petroleum products. Petroleum products can be moved from state to state by rail tankers, rather than by tanker trucks.

I believe that one of the ways to solve the problem of the gridlock in Apapa and the degradation of the Apapa-Oworonshoki Expressway is for goods to be moved from the port primarily by trains and for trailer trucks to be banned from plying the roads between 6am-9pm.

The rail lines in the Apapa Port complex and the rail line from the Ebute Metta Junction to Apapa were rehabilitated by the AP Moeller-Maersk Group (a concessionaire at the Apapa Port) and the previous Federal Government, but users of the port complain that not enough trains have been provided to move goods out of the port. This issue must be addressed.

Indeed I think that the new ports that are being constructed across the country should also be linked by rail. I'm not sure if the blue line that's currently being constructed is dual purpose, but I think it's very important that there's a freight train service in the Ojo-Badagry area to service the new Badagry Port, the Energy City, the Agbara Industrial Estate, the car plant (VON/Stallion Motors), Alaba Markets, the Trade Fair Complex and to move goods coming from Benin Republic (by the way, I went past there last week and I was surprised at the progress that's been made on the Blue Line. The tracks had only been laid from Orile to Mile 2 the previous time I went there and the road expansion works terminated just after the Festac Bridge, but now the tracks have been laid beyond Festac and the expansion works had progressed beyond Amuwo Odofin. The rail bridge on the other side had gone beyond the Ebute Metta Creek, but I really hate what they've done to the creek). It's also important that the new Lekki Port, the Olokola Port and the Ibom Port should be linked to the national rail network.

3) Out of time goods (goods that have stayed longer than 28 days) at the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports should be moved to the Ikorodu Port by barges. This will free up space at those ports and also reduce the number of trucks on our roads. The Ikorodu Port should also be linked to the national rail newtork.


Basically, the solution to the problem is the same as the solution to the general transport problem in Lagos - mutlimodal transport. We can't keep depending on the road (for both passenger and goods transportation, but especially for transporting goods), we need to utilise and expand the rail system, the waterways, the air and even underground.


Photo of port construction in colonial Nigeria (note the railway tracks). Picturee by the Nigerian Ports Authority.

naptu2:


I think I need to explain a couple of things.

1) The refinery and in fact the entire Free Trade Zone is in Ibeju Lekki. Lekki (Phase 1 to Abraham Adesanya) is to the west of Ibeju Lekki, but all the goods that are going to go to and from the Free Trade Zone are going to be moved through the north (through Ogun), east (through Ondo) and south (through the Atlantic Ocean. Lekki Peninsula will not be significantly affected.

2) There are already facilities to move goods through the north and south of the Free Trade Zone. Dangote has built his port. There is already a road that links Epe and Ijebu Ode (in Ogun State) and there is already a lighter terminal in Epe on the Lagos Lagoon. Dangote also already has a jetty on the lagoon.


3) Ondo State, Ogun State and Lagos State are building roads to the north and east of the facility. Will they be ready before the refinery is ready? Maybe, maybe not, nobody knows, just as nobody knows if the refinery will be ready before the roads. Remember that the refinery was originally scheduled for completion in 2016, then 2018, then 2019, then 2020 and now 2021. Nobody knows if it will be ready by 2021.

4) What happened in Apapa is not a failure of planning, but rather an example of the indiscipline of Nigerians (both in and out of government).

This gridlock in Apapa did not exist when I was a kid in the '70s and '80s, so I had to ask myself what changed. I wrote this while trying to find an answer, but I need to include two things that I previously left out.

The reason that they stopped piping is because militants break open the pipelines at Arepo in Ikorodu and steal the product.

The railway system collapsed in the 1990s. C2000 Aliko Dangote made a proposal to lease vacant land at Apapa Port for his flour business. There was an outcry when he was given the land. People said that the government was favouring him. In order to appear impartial the government then gave some land at the port to Flour Mills of Nigeria. The problem is that the land that was given to Flour Mills contains a portion of the railway and they built their factory right over the railway line, so not trains could run from Ebute Metta to the port. The government is now demolition that factory as it constructs the new standard guage line.

Very apt.

naptu2:


I think I need to explain a couple of things.

1) The refinery and in fact the entire Free Trade Zone is in Ibeju Lekki. Lekki (Phase 1 to Abraham Adesanya) is to the west of Ibeju Lekki, but all the goods that are going to go to and from the Free Trade Zone are going to be moved through the north (through Ogun), east (through Ondo) and south (through the Atlantic Ocean. Lekki Peninsula will not be significantly affected.






4) What happened in Apapa is not a failure of planning, but rather an example of the indiscipline of Nigerians (both in and out of government)

There's a sensible plan and there will be a Nigerian reality...

DisGuy:


There's a sensible plan and there will be a Nigerian reality...

What's the fastest and logical route to get goods out of Lagos from Ibeju Lekki, north, south, east or west?

(That is, to move goods to places like Ibadan and Abeokuta in western Nigeria, or to move goods to eastern Nigeria via the Lagos-Benin Expressway, or to move goods to the north of Nigeria. Look at the location of Dangote's refinery in Ibeju Lekki and then look at the position of Lekki Phase 1 and the other places I mentioned on the map).

naptu2:


What's the fastest and logical route to get goods out of Lagos from Ibeju Lekki, north, south, east or west?

(That is, to move goods to places like Ibadan and Abeokuta in western Nigeria, or to move goods to eastern Nigeria via the Lagos-Benin Expressway, or to move goods to the north of Nigeria).

Absolutely, I hope they complete the ijebu-epe road on time and to specification- not too impressed

what's the most efficient and logical way to move fuel Northwest? The is technology to protect the pipelines and more than enough 'corps' to recruit along the line as you described up there but....the reality is there....

DisGuy:


Absolutely, I hope they complete the ijebu-epe road on time and to specification- not too impressed

what's the most efficient and logical way to move fuel Northwest? The is technology to protect the pipelines and more than enough 'corps' to recruit along the line as you described up there but....the reality is there....

You didn't answer my question. Geographically, what's the fastest way to move goods out of Ibeju-Lekki. I'vr already answered your question in my post (in fact you took that question from my post) and it's not the same as the question I asked

naptu2:


You didn't answer my question. Geographically, what's the fastest way to move goods out of Ibeju-Lekki. I'vr already answered your question in my post (in fact you took that question from my post) and it's not the same as the question I asked

Of course those routes are fastest, What I'm trying to reiterate is that your post clearly demonstrates-indiscipline is our reality. There will be a massive comma in the system. Tank farms, another nurtw branch etc will dot the landscape before you know it drivers will be looking for alternatives

naptu2:


What's the fastest and logical route to get goods out of Lagos from Ibeju Lekki, north, south, east or west?

(That is, to move goods to places like Ibadan and Abeokuta in western Nigeria, or to move goods to eastern Nigeria via the Lagos-Benin Expressway, or to move goods to the north of Nigeria).

Fastest and logical route is through Ogun state.
Epe-Ijebu ode expressway links both Ibadan and Ore expressway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3o90fAjYGc

Hope this road is big enough

DisGuy:


Of course those routes are fastest, What I'm trying to reiterate is that indiscipline is our reality. There will be a massive comma in the system. Tank farms, another nurtw branch etc will dot the landscape before you know it drivers will be looking for alternatives

And all that still doesn't negate my statement that you quoted.

I'll make it clearer. I said that goods will be moved via the north, south and east and therefore, Lekki, which is to the west, will not be significantly affected.

You then asked a question about moving fuel to the north-west. The fuel is still moved in a north-westerly direction, whether it's by tanker trucks or by pipelines, so it still has nothing to do with my statement about Lekki.

The fact remains, my statement was correct. Goods will be moved eastward, northward and southward.

Katlyst:


Fastest and logical route is through Ogun state.
Epe-Ijebu ode expressway links both Ibadan and Ore expressway.

Exactly!

Boss Naptu

I never implied you were wrong, not in the slightest. What I'm harping on about is the reality. I mean in your previous posts- indiscipline and incompetence is usually the biggest problem!

I mean we have been importing fuel even though the logical thing is to fix refineries or build more

DisGuy:
Boss Naptu

I never implied you were wrong, not in the slightest. What I'm harping on about is the reality. I mean in your previous posts- indiscipline and incompetence is usually the biggest problem!

I mean we have been importing fuel even though the logical thing is to fix refineries or build more

I think that's something that we can all agree on (even though there are a few exceptions and rays of hope, for example, if Dangote completes the refinery then we'll become exporters of refined petroleum products instead of importers).

naptu2:


I think that's something that we can all agree on (even though there are a few exceptions and rays of hope, for example, if Dangote completes the refinery then we'll become exporters of refined petroleum products instead of importers).

Hmm, naptu2 I read somewhere that when the facility eventually comes online, excess power generated will be distributed to Eko electricity distribution company thereby improving power supply in Lagos. Is there any truth to this?

Nickshrapnel:
Hmm, naptu2 I read somewhere that when the facility eventually comes online, excess power generated will be distributed to Eko electricity distribution company thereby improving power supply in Lagos. Is there any truth to this?

Well, they are building a 570 megawatt power plant and the refinery and fertilizer plant requires 440 megawatts, so it's possible.

However, I think the main boost to electricity in Lagos will be the undersea gas pipeline. That will carry gas from Bonny under the sea to Olokola in Ondo and then to Ibeju Lekki in Lagos. I'm certain that part of the gas will be used to power other industries and power plants in Lagos.

naptu2:


Well, they are building a 570 megawatt power plant and the refinery and fertilizer plant requires 440 megawatts, so it's possible.

However, I think the main boost to electricity in Lagos will be the undersea gas pipeline. That will carry gas from Bonny under the sea to Olokola in Ondo and then to Ibeju Lekki in Lagos. I'm certain that part of the gas will be used to power other industries and power plants in Lagos.

Very well then

End.

In addition to the roads that I have already written about, I hear that the Federal Government has given permission for Dangote to build a brand new expressway from the Lekki Free Trade Zone, through the forest and Epe to the Lagos-Benin Expressway in exchange for tax credits.