Assessment of Locational Compliance Status of Petroleum Products Handling Facilities in Niger Delta Region, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was aimed at assessing the locational compliance status of petroleum handling facilities in the Niger Delta to the specifications of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) locational standards. A cross-sectional research design was employed using a Standard checklist of seventeen compliance specifications of NUPRC. A walk-through survey was carried out in 118 identified facilities in three locations: Eket in Akwa-Ibom State, Port Harcourt in Rivers State and Warri in Delta State, respectively. The data obtained were analyzed using inferential and descriptive statistics, Kendall Tau-B and Principal Component analyses. The results indicate that the Petroleum Product facilities complied with 6 (35.29%) out of 17 specifications while 11 (64.70%) specifications were violated. Locations compliance of stations in the Niger Delta region is generally poor, but Stations in Port Harcourt recorded a higher compliance rate compared to Eket and Warri. Results of Kendall's tau-b and Principal Component analysis indicated positive association between all the land space locational compliances. This study attributes the poor compliance rate to rapid urbanization, overpopulation, proliferation of filling stations and poor monitoring by regulatory agencies. It is recommended that, NUPRC should improve its monitoring and enforce regulatory operational specifications.