Our Correspondent
Hope of making Warri seaport active again seems not realizable, as gas pipelines belonging to the National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, will hinder the dredging of the port’s channel below 7.5 meters.
Disclosing this in Lagos Monday during a working visit to the corporate head officer of Vanguard Media Ltd, publishers of Vanguard Newspaper, Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, said though NPA would have love to dredge the channel below the 7.5 mark, it is not possible.
According to her, “Warri port is an area that has a lot of oil and gas activities. We recently got approval for the dredging of the Escravos bar that has not been dredged since the 1980’s, we are dredging it to 7.5 meters. “That is the maximum you can dredge it in view of pipes that are buried there. NNPC pipes that are buried there so we cannot go below that, idealy we should go below that but we are unable to go below that,” she noted.