Nigerian Shipowners Renew Calls To Participate In Lifting Petroleum Products

Indigenous shipowners in Nigeria have renewed calls on the Federal Government to ensure full implementation of the Cabotage Act and the Nigerian Local Content Act, to ensure that they participate in the affreightment of Nigerian crude oil as well as have their ships listed for coastal activities.
A ship owner and Chairman Planning Committee of Nigerian Maritime Expo (NIMAREX) 2015; Mr. Ayo Adedoyin in a chat with Shipping Position Daily last week also called on the present administration of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to change the Nigerian trade policy of selling crude oil from Free On Board (FOB) to Cost Insurance and Freight (CIF).
Under the CIF policy, Nigeria will be required to deliver crude to all her customers, using own or chartered vessels, unlike the present FOB arrangement when the buyers provide their own vessel to lift crude from the country.
Stakeholders have argued that the CIF is the modern trade policy, and Nigeria remains the only country in the world still adopting FOB as a trade policy, especially for wet cargoes, like crude.
Acting Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Mr. Haruna Baba Jauro while briefing members of the Senate Committee on Marine Transport recently said that the apex maritime agency has registered has registered 1,975 ships, but that most of them are small vessels.
Adedoyin however told our correspondent that it is even difficult for indigenous operators to engage in coastal trades now, including ship-to-ship transfers (STS), saying that such trades should be exclusive and preserved strictly for Nigerians.
He added that if the Federal Government could change the sale of its crude oil from FOB to CIF, this will translate into a lot of jobs for indigenous practitioners in the oil and gas sector as well as the maritime industry.
He noted that shipowners have over the years through their association; Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA) clamoured for the contract to be changed, but lamented that government has refused to listen to the stakeholders.
“We have been clamouring, and it is no longer on our side now, it is now left to the government, if they can decide today to change the way our crude oil is sold, if they start selling at CIF instead of FOB, the whole business in the oil and maritime sector will change.
“So, it is not for the noise we are making, it is whether the government is actually hearing the noise and willing to do what is right”, he stated.
While reacting to comments by the NIMASA Acting Director General that most vessels registered in Nigeria are small vessels, Adedoyin said that, “even if they are small vessels, they are for coastal trade, presently we have tanker owners who cannot even do STS (Ship to Ship transfer) , is STS not coastal trade? We don’t need big vessels for coastal trades” he argued.
Speaking recently, the NIMASA boss; Jauro told the Senators that the total gross tonnage of Nigerian flag is 2.8million tonnes which according to him is low compared to the number of the vessels. He said that the average number of vessels that call at Nigerian ports per month is between 550 and 600.