Shipping firms end mid-stream discharge

Secretary of Berthing Meeting, Mr Vincent Ohizu, said this week that all shipping companies are complying with the Presidential directive banning midstream discharge of cargoes on the nation’s waters..
Ohizu told newsmen in Lagos that shipping companies were not involved in midstream discharge, except Brawal Shipping.
Berthing Meeting is a daily gathering of representatives of shipping companies and terminal operators to deliberate on ship movement into the terminals, after which, the Shipping Position, a document is released by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
He said that Brawal Shipping has been licensed and given the mandate to discharge cargoes midstream.
“What happens now is that if at all a shipping company must undertake midstream discharge, it must be with the ministerial approval,” Ohizu  told NAN.
NAN recalls that President Goodluck Jonathan gave the order while commissioning some projects at the Federal Lighter Terminal and Federal Ocean Terminal at Onne Port Complex in 2010.
The President said that the government would no longer condone security threat and the huge loss of revenue to midstream and private jetties discharge of cargoes.
The president told shippers that all cargoes imported into the country must be discharged at the NPA designated terminals.
Ohizu advised that government agencies at the ports such like the Nigeria Customs Service and the Nigeria Immigration Service should desist from boarding ships for documentation purposes.
“In other West African countries, the practice of boarding ships for documentation no longer exists.
“Rather, agents of the shipping company complete their documents by going to the office of the relevant authority,” he said.
Ohizu said that delays in berthing were no longer common in Lagos pilotage district, adding that only documentation procedures could cause delays in berthing of ships.
He also commended the Board of the Lagos Channel Management, a company assigned by NPA to dredge the waterways.
Ohizu said that bigger vessels were sailing into the berths in some terminals with the assistance of the dredging firm.
Source: Vanguard