FG announces ban of 60,000-litre fuel tankers from roads

Thursday, February 20, 2025 - The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has announced a ban on 60,000-litre fuel tankers from operating on Nigerian roads, effective March 1, 2025.

Disclosing this to newsmen in Abuja, on Wednesday, February 19, the NMDPRA Executive Director, Distribution Systems, Storage, and Retailing Infrastructure,  Ogbugo Ukoha, said the decision was made in response to the increasing number of road accidents involving heavy-duty petroleum tankers. He stated that to mitigate truck-in-transit incidents, some of which had resulted in infernos and several deaths.

“The first stakeholders’ technical committee met today to drill down and put timelines for about 10 resolutions that had been taken on how to drive down the significant increase that had been observed in relation to trucks and transit incidents and fatalities.”

According to him, following deliberations involving key agencies including the Department of State Services (DSS), Federal Fire Service, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), it was agreed that from March 1, 2025, any truck with an axle load of more than 60,000 litres of hydrocarbon will not be allowed to load at any depot.

“The important thing about this is that, for the first time, consensus was built amongst all stakeholders, and we are continuing to encourage that we will work together cohesively to deliver a safe transportation of petroleum products across the country,” he said.

Reacting to the rising number of fatalities, he said

“We noticed in 2023, what we thought was a significant increase in trucks and transit incidents. But in 2024, what we thought was an increase in 2023 was, sadly, much more.

Last week when we hosted another stakeholder meeting, we even pointed to the fact that the January occurrences are threatening to exceed or catch up or exceed the 2024. And so, we must draw a line and say, this can no longer continue. There were about 10 interventions that were determined that will mitigate this.”