ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPLICATIONS OF PETROL FILLING STATIONS  DISTRIBUTION PATTERN IN KADUNA METROPOLIS,  KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPLICATIONS OF PETROL FILLING STATIONS  DISTRIBUTION PATTERN IN KADUNA METROPOLIS,  KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPLICATIONS OF PETROL FILLING STATIONS DISTRIBUTION PATTERN IN KADUNA METROPOLIS, KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Authors

ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPLICATIONS OF PETROL FILLING STATIONS DISTRIBUTION PATTERN IN KADUNA METROPOLIS, KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Publisher

Ahmadu Bello University Zaria

Abstract

The present location of petrol filling stations in towns and cities of Nigeria hardly reflects the approved criteria for their location, thereby posing environmental problems. This study therefore analyzed the locational pattern of petrol filling stations and its implications in Kaduna Metropolis using GIS technique. The list of petrol filling stations were collected from the Department Petroleum Resource [DPR]. Field survey was also carried out through which the geographic coordinates of petrol filling stations in the area were captured using hand held Global Positioning System receiver. Convenience sampling technique was used to administer 400 copies of questionnaire to the respondents eliciting information on the implications of the distribution pattern of petrol filling stations. Data were analyzed using Overlay and the Nearest Neighbour Ratio in ArcGIS 10.2 environment to determine the distribution and pattern of petrol filling stations. The Proximity (Buffering) Analysis in ArcGIS 10.2 environment was used to determine the petrol filling stations compliance to DPR standards while frequency tables, charts and mean scores were used to analyze the perceived implications of petrol filling stations distribution pattern. The findings revealed that out of 225 petrol filling stations, 69% were owned by independent marketers. About 76% of the filling stations were located along major roads in Kaduna metropolis. The nearest neighbor index of 0.399 with z-score of -19.129 indicated that the distribution of petrol filling stations in the area had a clustered pattern around each other. The study also revealed that only 16% of the petrol filling stations in the area satisfied the 400 metres distance apart from the nearest petrol filling station and only 3.6% met not more than four petrol filling stations within 2 kilometres radius. It was found that 53% of the petrol filling stations were sited 50 metres away in all angles of the built-up areas, none was within NNPC and PPMC viii pipeline 15 metres right of way. Most of the petrol filling stations satisfied the minimum requirement of 15 metres from the PHCN transmission (99%) and rail lines (95%) right of way. The findings further revealed that high volume of vehicular traffic (23.8%) and siting of petrol stations at road intersection/junction (22.5%) were the main factors that influenced the clustered pattern of petrol filling stations in the study area. Traffic congestion due to queues at filling stations and air pollution with mean scores of 2.67 and 2.65 respectively were the most perceived sociology-economic implications of petrol filling station‟s location in the area. The study therefore recommends that the government should enforce relocation of the petrol stations that did not satisfy the DPR standards and the DPR should make compulsory the submission of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report to include the geographic location of the site to be used for construction of petrol filling station to check conformity before approval.