Tanker vessel
The nation’s seaports located in Lagos are awaiting the arrival of no fewer than 21 vessels laden with premium motor spirit (PMS) otherwise called petrol.
The PMS laden vessels, which are in various sizes and tonnage are expected to berth at the various oil terminals situated in Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre.
A Shipping Position (SP) issued by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and obtained by THISDAY revealed that not less than 13 of the tankers were laden with PMS.
SP which is prepared by NPA daily showed the movement of ships calling at the various terminals of the nation’s seaports located at Onne, Port Harcourt, Warri, Calabar and Lagos.
A cursory look into SP also revealed that two ships were laden with diesel, one with kerosene while five others contained aviation fuel.
The SP which also contains other vital data of the vessels indicated that some of the tankers are MT Argosy, MT Adventurer, MT Ceseria, MT Knronburg, MT Lucky Lady, MT Danny Rose, MT Ermar, MT Rofos, MT Torm Hellerup, MT Torm Gertrud, MT Amalienburg, MT Perla and MT Alizea.
The SP also indicated that the ships were to berth at various terminals in Lagos. These include Atlas Cove Jetty (ACJ), New Oil Jetty (NOJ), Fishery Wharf, Single Buoy Mooring (SBM), Bulk Oil Plant (BOP) and Ibafon jetty, Apapa.
In the same vein, the SP showed that 81 ships were expected at the Lagos Ports between 15 and 31 August 31, 2012 with bulk cargo such as new vehicles as well as used ones popularly called “tokunbo”.
Other items include steel products, fish, general cargo, bulk salt, rice, soya beans, bulk wheat, petroleum products and containerised cargoes.
According to the SP, the ships were expected to sail into terminals like Ports and Cargo Limited (PTML), Tin Can Island Port, Apapa, Lagos; APM Terminals Apapa Limited, Apapa Wharf; ENL Consortium Limited, Apapa; Joseph dam Limited, Apapa; Greenview Development Nigeria Limited (GDNL), Apapa; Tin-Can Island Container Terminal, Apapa and Five star Logistics Terminal, TCIP, Apapa.
Meanwhile, NPA report of June 2012 has shown an increased container and vehicle imports as against the same period in 2011.
Available statistics show the laden container throughput stood at 73,865 TEUs which showed a 24.6 percent increase over the same period of June 2011 figure of 59,264 TEUs.
Empty container throughput stood at 52,709 TEUs showing a rise of 13.5 percent over the June 2011 figure of 41,831TEUs.
Also vehicle imports in the month under review stood at 22,329 units representing a growth of 80.6 percent over the June 2011 figure of 12,361 units.
NPA Managing Director, Malam Habib Abdullahi, in a statement in Lagos signed by the General Manager, Public Affairs Chief Michael Ajayi, said that with the tremendous support of the Federal Government, the authority had engaged in massive infrastructural development which has resulted in increased container traffic.
He further assured that the authority would continue to encourage the co-operation and collaboration amongst major maritime stakeholders in order to achieve the vision to make Nigerian ports the hub of the West and Central African sub-regions.