Only about 60 of 600 vessels in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry are owned
Only about 60 of 600 vessels in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry are owned by indigenous operators.General Secretary of the Indigenous Shipowners Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Captain Niyi Labinjo, who told The Nation in Lagos, that out of this 60 vessels, only about six of them are currently doing business in the offshore sector.
The ISAN scribe lamented that the rest are anchored at the nation’s waters without jobs.Labinjo disclosed each vessel participating in the offshore operations collect at least $5,000 per day, which, according to him, is the least amount collected by foreign vessels doing business in the nation’s waters.
He said with the situation, the country is losing about N2 trillion annually as capital flight.”We have plenty of hydrocarbons. As at today, it is 37 billion barrels but our government is working towards making it 40 billion. That is our proven reserve. We are said to be the 10th-world producer of oil. The world as a whole everyday uses 84 million barrels per day of oil and Nigeria produces 2.5 million barrels every day. For gas, we have 24 trillion reserves.
“We have the best shrimps in the world called tiger shrimps, that is why you have very many Indian fishing companies in Nigeria. All the tiger shrimps are exported. We import into Nigeria every five million metric tonnes of cargo, 100 million metric tonnes of general goods. We import 65 million litres of petroleum products every year.
Source: The Nation