NIMASA Stakeholders Writes On The Crooks, Criminals And Fiction Behind Oil Subsidy Tales In Nigeria
Posted: November 15, 2011 - 23:25

By SaharaReporters, New York
As the federal government prepares to impose further hardship on the nation by “withdrawing” oil subsidies, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) stakeholders have provided a cautionary tale that the so-called deregulation is a hoax.

The bizarre tale, below, was written by the President of the Maritime Stakeholders Consultative Forum, Mallam Suleuman Aliyu, and the agency’s Secretary, Mr. Adefila Aderogba, and it shows how officials of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) are conniving with foreign interests to sell locally-refined products to Nigerians as imported products:

At the moment, the debate on every lip in Nigeria is whether petroleum products subsidy should be removed by the government or not – the move is according to forces in Government to deregulate the downstream sector thereby opening the market for private participation and competition. Social critics, activists and progressives have consistently accused oil capitalists (petroleum products importers) as those behind the move to deregulate the petroleum downstream sector to enable them make big profits through increase in prices of petroleum products meant for local consumption. Critics of the price increase policy are of the view that such will have multiplying effects on other sectors of life – particularly social and economic.

A discovery by a team of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on 1st November, 2011 shows that deregulation is a hoax.

On 1st November, 2011 a vessel SEA PHANTOM, with Captain Allan T. Arcilla and flying a Hong Kong flag was accosted by NIMASA team on random check while discharging its content – about (ten thousand) 10,000 tons of Kerosene (being DPK – Dual Purpose Kerosene) into a mother vessel (bigger vessel) MT TORM ESBJERG offshore well within Lagos waters. Paper checks revealed that SEA PHANTOM loaded its about (ten thousand) 10,000 tons of Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK) from Okirika in Rivers state with Port Harcourt port (Abonnema) as finally point of discharge for local consumption. However, the vessel was diverted to Lagos offshore. Further checks uncovered that the receiving vessel MT TORM ESBJERG with a capacity of 29,733 tons was already in possession of more than 20,000 metric tons (mts) of Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK). The SEA PHANTOM content was added making it a total content of about 37,500 metric tons of Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK).




A chagrin discovery from further paper investigation shows that the content (DUAL Purpose Kerosene – more than 37,500 tons) of MT TORM ESBJERG was to be returned to Port Harcourt port in Rivers state as imported DPK for local consumption by the same cabals. On interrogation by the NIMASA team the Captain and Agent (Valeska Tankers Nigeria Ltd) of MT TORM ESBJERG corroborated the finding that the Dual Purpose Kerosene discovered in their vessel is meant to be discharged at Port Harcourt port in Rivers state.

To the utter amazement of the NIMASA team both ships (SEA PHANTOM & MT TORM ESBJERG) do not have naval clearance and are not in compliance with IMO Resolution MEPC 186 (59), which came into force (domesticated) in January 2011. Thus, these ships were operating in the territorial waters of Nigeria without formally notifying the appropriate authorities (Nigerian Navy and NIMASA).

Further investigations also revealed that both vessel were crewed by foreigners while carrying cargo from a Nigerian port to another Nigerian port. An operation classed as cabotage, of which one of the requirements is to have an all-Nigerian crew onboard except the operating company or vessel has obtained a waiver from the Federal Ministry of Transport. This basic requirement was completely disregarded in this case by both the MT SEA PHANTOM and MT TORM ESBERG.
The Master of the MT SEA PHANTOM on the Agent’s instruction, refused to produce the Certificate of Origin of the cargo amongst other statutory documents required for this type of operation, making it crucial for the Inspection Team to conclude that they have no documents for the product they lifted for onward transshipment. Subsequent negotiations with the Agent to release documents of the Cargo proved abortive as even the crew of the MT SEA PHANTOM claimed not to have them. The Agent (Valeska Tankers Nigeria Ltd) furthermore, refused to take calls immediately after, until 48 hours later, when he agreed to meet with the inspection team of NIMASA. In the said meeting, Valeska Tankers Nigeria Ltd was still yet to provide the required and statutory documents, thereby putting the Captain, the vessel, its crew and indeed his company, in breach of international norms.

The investigation team of NIMASA believes sincerely that further prompting would provide the public with much sought answers to the heading of this investigation.

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