Upstream Operator Charges NPA on Dredging Apapa Port to Allow Big Oil Vessels

A major operator in the upstream sector of the Nigerian petroleum industry and Chief Executive Officer of Brittania-U Nigeria Limited, Mrs Catherine Uju Ifejika has charged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on the need to dredge the Apapa port to further allow it accommodate big oil vessels.
Brittania-U is an indigenous company with operations in petroleum production, refining, trading, supply and distribution.
Mrs Ifejika gave the charge at a stakeholders meeting in Lagos last week, lamenting that the deepest daft of the Apapa port is 15meters and this is an impediment to major petroleum operations.
According to her, it is shameful that neighbouring countries like Togo and Ghana have continued to collect the revenue that should ordinarily have accrued to the Federal Government through the receiving of big mother vessels.
She stressed that most of the vessels which her company use for business require 30meters draft, but that since the Apapa port could only receive small vessels, operators are subjected to Ship to Ship (STS) transfer offshore Lome in Togo.
"I bring in cargoes for Total and other IOCs, but the major challenge is the infrastructure at Apapa port, they are out-dated, let NPA dredge the port to accommodate big vessels‎, currently we are going to Lome for STS before bringing in products in small vessels, this is a huge revenue loss for the Federal Government"
"You cannot bring in a full cargo without doing an STS, the maximum you get in Apapa is 15metres and we have vessels that are 30metres"
 
"Why is Ghana and Lome having their own 30metres and Nigeria we call ourselves giant of Africa but we cannot"
‎"We cannot continue to lose this market, we cannot continue to operate a port as if we are in the 70's. We must look for a way to support Lekki or Badagry to start receiving big vessels, small countries around us do it and yet Nigeria with all the oil money cannot" she lamented
However responding at the same meeting, former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Chief Adebayo Sarumi warned that there is a limit to which the existing ports of Apapa and Tin Can Island can be dredged.
Sarumi said the dredging cannot exceed 15meters; saying that if this happens, the ports could cave in‎to the water and this would be disastrous.
"There is a limit to the amount of dredging you can carry out at a particular port, when you go beyond that, you are endangering the entire port and the channel, you need to know the limitation of the port you are sending your cargo to‎. Again, dredging Apapa would cost the government a lot of money, how many big vessels are we sure are ready to come in and pay for it" he wondered.
On his part, former Director General of NIMASA, Mr. Temisan Omatseye argued that the issue of STS going on at Lome is not because of the draft restriction as argued by Mrs Ifejika. He said the absence of STS in Lagos waters was because the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) refused release dollars for the operations.
"It is not the fault of NPA, it is purely a CBN problem, STS is being done offshore Lome and not in their port, why this is going on is because CBN has refused to pay dollars for any STS that goes on off Lagos, previously vessels used to come to Lagos and do STS at anchorage, but now the mother vessels stay in Lome" he said.