Operators at the Onne Ports complex and Oil and Gas Free Zone, Onne, last week reeled out a barrage of challenges they face using the seaports, coupled with double charges imposed on them by both the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA).
Onne Ports complex occupies a total of 2,500 square metres, of which only about 30 percent of the area is taken up by users.
At a stakeholders’ interactive session between ports operators and the managing director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, at the NPA Onne, most of the operators complained of increasing cost of doing business at the ports, mounting insecurity along the Onne sea channel inlet, marked by heightening piracy, dilapidated or non-availability of key equipment such as tugboats, pilot-cutters, gunboats and patrol boats, required for good port operations.
Other challenges faced by the port operators include: shallow channel for bigger ocean vessels, lack of routine dredging of the ports, need to review the GMT and concession, presence of wrecks along the channel, poor electricity supply and non-illumination in and around the ports.
The insecurity issue was confirmed when the Marine Police officer at Onne told the NPA boss that his team covered 12 nautical miles from baseline to anchorage of Onne Ports, “but sadly does not have any gunboat or patrol boat to face the sea pirates who often operate from sophisticated boats and attack weapons.”
However, Usman and OGFZA managing director, Umanah Okon Umanah, agreed to urgently tackle the issues raised by the ports operators, especially that of double land rent charges.
On security issues, she announced the NPA was currently collaborating with all security agencies to up the security narrative at the ports.
She also informed that the NPA was procuring two 17m offshore patrol boat that would greatly increase the patrol capacity of the ports; six tugboats, which would be deployed to Onne.
She also said a committee that would holistically consider the magnitude of wrecks in and around the ports, with the view to removing them to make the ports safe for vessels smooth sailing.
There would be a review of the GMT and concession of the terminal operators to make it more workable to operators.
Meanwhile, the NPA boss has said the authority would be seeking an amendment of its extant law, to make it easier for it (NPA) to undertake its equipment procurements like the NNPC and Ministry of Defence, without having to go through the long hassle of Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) or Due Process approvals.
According to her, it takes at least five months to achieve the quickest procurement by any federal government agency; adding that NPA equipment are not bought off the shelf, but are purpose-built. Some equipment may take up to 18 months for the manufacturer to construct before delivering to the buyer.
The stakeholders meeting, called at the instance of NPA, was attended by operators such as: Total Upstream Nigeria, Notore Chemicals & Fertilizers, Tenaris Nigeria, the federal agencies like Customs Service (NCS), Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), NDLEA, NIMASA, among others.
