The Ship Owners Association of Nigeria, SOAN, and the Nigerian Ship Owners Association, NISA, say about N2 trillion is lost annually by allowing foreign carriers to exercise dominance over the carriage of 150 million of Nigerian cargo, including crude and products, according to Shipping Position Daily.
They attributed the loss by Nigeria to the NNPC’s, exclusive use of foreign shipping companies for transporting the Nigerian crude, which is sold on Free-on-Board, FOB, rather than on Cost, Insurance and Freight, CIS.
The Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Transportation and other agencies are now taking steps to facilitate a partnership between the Nigerian ship owners and reputable foreign shipping companies to form joint venture companies that will be granted the national carrier status in order to promote local content in the transport of the Nigerian crude within the next five years.
Shipping Position Daily reported that the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Agency, NCDMB, convened a meeting with the NNPC, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, as well as stakeholders in the oil and gas industry and the shipping sector in Lagos to deliberate on how to make the Nigerian shipowners activate participants in the lifting of the nation’s crude oil.
Rising from the meeting, tagged “Crude oil Off-takers Nigerian Content Deliverables”, the agencies pledged to grow local content in the lifting of Nigeria’s crude oil by working with Nigerian shipping stake holders to develop in-country assets and capacity that meet international standard.
They also agreed to ensure that companies that invest in ownership of crude oil lifting vessels are given first consideration in line with the provisions of the Nigerian Local Content Act and the NIMASA Act.
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