Hope rises for Nigerian ship owners as NNPC changes bidding terms for crude oil lifting

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has in line with the provisions of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Act (NOGICA), changed its bidding terms for 2021 – 2022 Direct Sale of Crude Oil and Direct Purchase of Petroleum Product (DSDP), to favour Nigerian ship owners, Businessday has learnt.

In its recent DSDP requirement, NNPC has made it compulsory that to load or bring in crude oil or any petroleum cargo meant for Nigeria, the contractor must engage a Nigerian- owned shipping company.

With this development, Nigerian vessels that have been struggling to participate in the multi- billion dollar business of lifting crude oil now have the opportunity to compete with foreign vessels.

Aminu Umar, managing director of Sea Transport Ltd, who disclosed this during a recent virtual conversation, attributed the development to efforts made by the National Fleet Implementation Committee (NFIC) in pushing for the involvement of Nigerian vessels in crude oil lifting.

“This is a great achievement and good step in the right direction. We hope to start seeing the benefits of this new clause on indigenous ship owners in the next three to four months, particularly in terms of access to business for Nigerian-owned vessels. We are very hopeful because it is an exciting development for Nigerian ship owners,” Umar said.

Umar, who noted that Nigeria has been missing out in human capital development, expressed optimism that the new development will create an opportunity for Nigeria to create jobs and generate capital inflow through seafaring that is currently dominated by Asian countries like Philippine and India.

To create opportunities for Nigerian ship owners, part of the 2021-2022 DSDP requirements, which was sighted by Businessday, is that bidders must utilise Nigerian shipping companies/ marine vessel vendors that are categorised A/AA in the latest Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) NOGIC Joint Qualification System (JQS) Marine vessel Categorisation report.

“All vendors in tender who are not categorised A/AA in the NCDMB Marine vessel report shall submit a Memorandum of Association (MOA) with Nigerian shipping companies/marine vessel vendors categorised A/AA in the NCDMB NOGIC Joint Qualification System (JQS) Marine Vessel Categorisation report in compliance with giving first consideration to Nigerian goods and services in this contract,” NNPC stated.