ABUJA: President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that 113 crude oil vessels should be banned from doing business in 27 oil terminals of the Nigerian territorial waters.
Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Gbenga Komolafe, conveyed the directive of the president via a memo dated July 15, 2015.
A copy of the memo made available to Premium Times states that the vessels are henceforth prohibited from engaging in crude oil and gas loading activities in any of the terminals in Nigerian territorial waters.
Copies of the memo signed by Komolafe were addressed to all terminal operators: Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources; Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration & Safety Agency, and the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, mandating them to effect the directive immediately.
The motive for the ban was however, not stated in the memo but Premium Times gathered that it may not be unconnected with certain discrepancies between the volume of crude oil lifted by the affected vessels from various Nigerian terminals and the volume eventually discharged abroad to buyers.
The source explained further that NNPC discovered huge discrepancies between the volume of crude oil lifted from Nigeria by these vessels and what they actually delivered to customers abroad.
There is a speculation that these vessels engage in high level of connivance to steal crude oil.
The affected vessels include MV Eliza, with international maritime organisation registration, IMO, No. 9387578, MV Happines (No. 9212905); MV Progress (No. 9180152), MV New Harmony (No. 963207); MV Cosgrace Lake (No. 9294587) and MV Plata Glory (No. 9172674).
Others are MV Humanity (No. 9180281); MV Scf Shanghai (No. 9325968); MV Tenyo (No. 9222443); MV Astro Challenge (No. 9237072); MV Maran Thetis (No. 94214427); MV BW Bauhinia (No. 9315070); MV Dream (No.9356893); MV Xin Dan Yag (No. 96140048) and MV Desim (No. 9395305).
