Patronize our shipping firm, Baru tells partners

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, has urged partners involved in the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) scheme of the corporation to patronize NIDAS Ltd, the NNPC shipping subsidiary, so as to ensure sustained profitability of the shipping company.

Dr. Baru passed the advice to two of NNPC’s relevant subsidiaries - Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD) and the NNPC Trading Ltd during his visit to the NNPC office in Hammersmith, London, where he met the staff of both the London office and NIDAS.

DSDP is a scheme by which NNPC sells crude oil directly to off-shore refiners and receive products from same in return.

A statement by NNPC spokesman, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, on Thursday said Baru was elated by the giant profitability strides recorded by NNPC/NIDAS no sooner than it launched into international freight business.

“I wish to commend NIDAS for beginning to make money for the NNPC. I am particularly elated with the company’s performance which has seen it doing 15 voyages on clean petroleum products from October 2018, just four months after it resumed international freight business,” he said.

NIDAS Ltd Managing Director, Mr. Lawal Sade, who spoke during the visit of the GMD, lauded Dr Baru for his support and efforts in revamping the company which he said, had been moribund prior to the GMD’s assumption of office.

Sade further stated that the company would work harder to sustain the tempo by engaging and soliciting the support of sister NNPC outfits and international partners towards improving the corporation’s bottom-line.

Sade informed the GMD that NIDAS had already signed Contract of Affreightment (COA) with BP and Socar for their DSDP clean cargoes, while discussions with Vitol, Mercuria and Petrocam are ongoing.

Established in 2007, NNPC/ NIDAS is a fully-owned subsidiary of NNPC charged with the mandate of shipping clean petroleum products into Nigeria and West Africa.