The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has called on the newly inaugurated executives of the Shipowners’ Association of Nigeria (SOAN) to set the ball rolling towards acquisition of tanker vessels that will enable members benefit from the opportunities that are abound in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru who stated this in a goodwill message he delivered at the inauguration of the new executives of SOAN in Lagos advised that where they could not bring in vessels of 20, 000 to 30, 000 metric tonnes deadweight, they could strive to bring in some other vessels of 15,000 metric tonnes deadweight so that they could participate in transportation of imported petroleum products to the hinterland.
Represented by the Director Marine Logistics of NNPC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamin, the NNPC boss advised the new executives to work hard to see how they could turn around the challenges being encountered by the shipowners to opportunity particularly as 30 million litres out of the 35 million litres consumed in the country is imported.
According to him,” Indeed, when this group was called, I was surprised to see that most of these members are members that operate in our upstream sector of the oil and gas industry. In fact, they happened to be the owners of basically all the vessels that we operate with our international oil companies. So, I started asking myself some questions, what is happening in the downstream where we have our coastal tankers, where we first supply the 35 million litres that Nigerians consume every day or let us use it the other way, that Nigerians burn every day in their vehicles and machines? Out of this 35 million litres demand that we burn every day; only 5 million is produced in the country because our three refineries are still operating below the capacity utilization. So, what happens to the 30 million litres?
”When you see that in the last one year we have not been having fuel queues, then you ask yourself a question, what is the magic? There is no magic there, we import everything and when we import, most of the import vessels cannot berth at our ports. The best among them berth only at Apapa ports and the remaining ones, we have to take our coastal vessels to transship them, first we brought them to Apapa port or the hinterland ports of Port-Harcourt, Calabar and Warri and even a smaller pot like Koko, they go there.
“What we see there, most of those vessels are operated or are owned by foreigners with Nigerians only acting as agents. So, I throw the ball to these people being inaugurated today, please do something about it. If you cannot bring in a vessel of 20,000-30, 000 metric tonnes deadweight, then you can bring in some other vessels of 15,000 metric tonnes deadweight so that we can send them to the hinterland ports of Warri, Calabar and perhaps, Port-Harcourt is even better, maybe Koko where we are taking about 7, 000 or 10, 000 metric tonnes deadweight of products.
“So, in the final analysis, I really wish that this team will take my advice and see how they can tackle the challenges that we see in the downstream sector. At least we hope that when Dangote Refineries comes on stream in 2019, hopefully, the level of importation will really reduce but for now, we have to continue to import refined products and when you import all these refined products, you know what it means. Our crude that we ought to have sold and get the necessary foreign reserve for government expenditure in education, roads, schools, health and what have you is now reduced drastically because everything now deals with a lot of currencies. You may have billions of Naira but a tickle of foreign reserves.
“So, these are the challenges I will like our ship owners to look into, see how they can bring in vessels especially tankers of between 10, 000 t0 30, 000 metric tonnes so that Nigerians can really feel the impact of what we are doing in the industry today”.
Also speaking, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Barr. Hassan Bello hinted that the Council together with the NNPC and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) were working holistically for the development of the national carrier for the nation adding that as far as the national fleet was concerned, a lot of things were involved.
“Yes, we are working with NIMASA, we are working with NNPC, we are working holistically for the establishment of the national fleet, disbursement is another thing, it is not only disbursement, as far as national fleet is concerned, we are talking about services, what happens to our cadets? We are talking about ship repair, ship building, do we have to take our ship to Hong Kong for servicing? We are talking about that national flag, we are also talking about the insurance, banking and other financial institutions, they must support the indigenous ownership and operation of shipping”, he said.
On the disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF), Bello explained,” I am sure you must have listened to the DG NIMASA, he is a very meticulous man and I am sure that he is taking time to make sure that disbursement of fund is done according to existing procedures and processes. There should be transparency, there should be scientific method. These funds are there, but how are they going to be utilized? It is not an easy task. So, I am sure when all the Is are dotted, all Ts have been crossed and all the funds are disbursed, you will see that it is different from the former one.
“For the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, this is a dream because we know that without the indigenous people carrying our crude, then we will never be a maritime nation. We could do everything, have the coastline, have whatever we said but a maritime nation is known when it has ships especially by its indigenous people and I think this is the beginning of that journey today”.
On his part, the Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside pointed out that whenever one sees NIMASA before the shipowners, the issue would always revolve around the CVFF saying that the agency had received knocks on the issue.
Peterside who was represented at the event by the Executive Director Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services of the agency, Ahmed Gambo regretted that the view generally held by the stakeholders was that NIMASA was not doing much on the issue whereas the agency was doing everything possible to make the CVFF work.
“Whether there have been challenges, but that is what life is all about. For me personally, the Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services, I would want to see that day that I would raise my hand and say, we have broken the jinx and that I can assure you we are going to do in no distance future”, he said.
Reacting in an interview with newsmen, the President of SOAN, Engr. Greg Ogbeifun stated that they were not aware that NIMASA was facing some challenges as it relates CVFF more so as they were still contributing the 2% to the fund adding that if there were challenges, he expected that the contribution would be suspended.
Ogbeifun observed that whatever that it was that had prevented this nation from disbursing the Cabotage Vessel finance fund in eleven years of existence was a jinx which he said must be broken.
He said,” As long as they are collecting the 2% and building up that fund, we the shipowners desire to engage NIMASA to see how they could help us build capacity which is the reason for which we are contributing that money. As I speak and since after the election which you made reference to, some members of the association who have eligible projects for that fund have applied formally to NIMASA for CVFF support and from what we know, NIMASA is positively analysing our applications, they are doing something about it because they have come back for members to provide more information to help the facilitation process for the approvals.
“If you listened to the Executive Director Cabotage and Shipping Development this evening, Mr. Gambo, he made reference to it that here is a lot of work going on internally. If there are challenges, they obviously have plans to overcome those challenges. But the issue is that the jinx stopping the disbursement of that fund must be broken and according to the present DG and the Honourable Minister of Transportation, there is current desire to break that jinx and move the industry forward”.
Photo: The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council decorating the newly inaugurated President of SOAN, Engr. Greg Ogbeifun with the insignia of office while other Executives watch during the inauguration of new SOAN Executives in Lagos.
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