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Nigeria Ports
Nigeria's port system consisted of three
complexes--Lagos,
Rivers, and Delta--and the port of Calabar. The Lagos port
complex was by far the most important, handling most of
Nigeria's
cargo. In addition to the cargo ports, two specialized
tanker
terminals handled crude oil exports.
The Lagos port complex consisted of the large quays at
Apapa
and new, smaller facilities at Tin Can Island west of
Apapa.
Apapa was Nigeria's principal cargo port and had direct
rail
connections to the national system. Docking facilities at
Warri,
Sapele, and several smaller towns near the mouth of the
Niger
River comprised the Delta complex. The main element in the
Rivers
ports complex was Port Harcourt, starting point for the
eastern
line of the Nigerian railroads and located sixty-six
kilometers
from the sea on the Bonny River. Calabar, eighty-three
kilometers
up the Cross River, served as eastern Nigeria's main port.
Nigeria's crude oil was exported through modern facilities
at
Bonny, near Port Harcourt, and Burutu, near Warri.
Import restrictions imposed in 1982, a soft worldwide
crude
oil market, and a decline in the country's crude oil
exports
throughout the 1980s caused a sharp decrease in oceangoing
trade.
In addition, the government shifted development funds in
the last
half of the 1980s from improving deepwater ports to
building
river ports in the hope that increased passenger traffic
on the
nation's inland waterways would relieve the strained
highway
system.
Data as of June 1991
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