Tag: Nigeria

Pirates are motivated by the increasing costs of petroleum in Nigeria The UK P&I Club issues bulleting regaring Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea- West Africa as follows:A recent case saw one of our Member vessels hijacked twice within a ten week period. On both occasions the ship was loaded with a cargo of petroleum and was drifting off Lagos waiting her turn to lighter.Acts of piracy and armed robbery off West African states contrast greatly with piracy of the kind seen in the Somali basin. The pirates' modus operandi in the Gulf of Guinea is likely motivated by the increasing costs of petroleum in Nigeria. West African pirates, not patient enough for prolonged ransom negotiations, are more eager to hijack a vessel, strip it of its cargo and opportunistically strip the crew of their possessions. The only similarities between the two varieties of African pirates is that like their East African neighbours Nigerian pirates are acting with increased confidence and attacks are now common over 100NM offshore.In the first attack no cargo was taken since the pirates who boarded were unable to secure a vessel to perform an STS at the time. Frustrated, the pirates then ransacked the ship, ...

Deteriorating security in the Gulf of Guinea Deteriorating security in the drought-hit Sahel and an uptick in piracy in the Gulf of Guinea topped the agenda at a West African regional meeting that opened in Nigeria's capital on Thursday.Leaders from the 15 nations that make up the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are also scheduled to pick a new body chairman, replacing Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan whose mandate is expiring.The summit comes amid heightened insecurity in the Sahel region, where Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger face renewed threats from Al-Qaeda's north Africa branch, known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM).Mali has also been forced to combat an offensive launched last month by Tuareg rebels, who have attacked several northern towns since January 17, part of a long-running struggle to secure autonomy for their nomadic desert tribes.France this week offered its first suggestion of a link between AQIM and a key Tuareg rebel group.The unrest in Mali has sparked widespread internal displacement and a surge in refugees fleeing the country. Niger and Burkina Faso, both ECOWAS members, have seen the arrival of thousands of Malian refugees, as has Mauritania, which is not a member of the bloc.The Red ...

Security concession Operators in the maritime industry have warned that the nation risk sanction by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) should it continue with the concession of the nation's maritime domain.The operators made their position known at a one day talk shop put together by the Maritime Reporters' Association of Nigeria (MARAN) in Lagos, noted that there is no where in the world were the security of any nation's maritime domain is handled by a private film as it is being done by the Nigerian government represented by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).The agency recently signed a contract for the Strategic Concessioning Partnership between it and a private firm, Global West Vessel Specialist Nigeria Limited (GWVSNL) to provide platform for Tracking Ships and Cargoes, Enforce Regulatory Compliance and Surveillance of the Entire Nigerian Maritime Domain.National President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu, condemned the concession. He asked when the project was advertised and further demanded "must everything be in secrecy? He stressed that the outsourcing cannot fly.He wondered why the maritime industry is the attraction of all sorts of experimentation, apparently because NIMASA is one of the richest government organizations, explaining ...

Nigerian piracy tends to develop very quickly and change very quickly The waters off West Africa's coast are now a constant danger for those shipping goods and crude oil in the region, analysts said Tuesday, a day after pirates killed two sailors near Nigeria's coast.Despite pledges by nations to patrol the waters of the Gulf of Guinea, pirates killed a captain and a chief engineer onboard a heavy cargo ship Monday morning about 110 nautical miles (126 miles) from the coast of Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital.While shootings and stabbings have happened before in the region, Monday's assault was one of the deadliest attacks in waters now considered to be as dangerous as those near Somalia. And such attacks are likely to continue."It's quite uncommon that you have people killed this way," said Thomas Horn Hansen, an analyst with Risk Intelligence based in London. "It might be a matter of luck that hasn't happened before."Authorities released new details Tuesday about the attack. Commodore Kabir Aliyu, a Nigerian naval spokesman, identified the attacked ship as the Fourseas SW, a bulk cargo ship designed to carry heavy loads like sand.An official at Fortuna Chartering A/S in Denmark, which manages the vessel, said it ...

IMB states that it is aware of at least another 34 unreported incidents in Nigerian waters The International Maritime Bureau is warning vessels to stay clear of waters off Nigeria after pirates killed the captain and chief engineer of a bulk carrier Monday, the third attack in West African waters in a week.The killings off the coast of Lagos, Nigeria's largest shipping gateway, came after pirates attacked a ship and hijacked a tanker ship near neighboring Benin in the last week.The IMB said although the average length of captivity of ships attacked off Benin and Nigeria is about 10 days compared to six months in Somali hijackings, the attacks can be more violent. While 10 attacks were reported in Nigeria in 2011, the number is "not representative of the real threat of Nigeria""Under reporting of attacks in Nigeria continues to be a cause for concern, and IMB states that it is aware of at least another 34 unreported incidents in Nigerian waters," the agency said.In neighboring Benin there were 20 incidents involving tankers, eight of which were hijacked and had cargoes partly stolen.Source: Journal of Commerce

Pirates shot dead its captain and chief engineer i Pirates off Nigeria's coast attacked a cargo ship early Monday, shooting dead its captain and chief engineer in the increasingly dangerous waters for shippers, an official said.The killings come as another ship nearby was attacked this weekend and pirates hijacked a tanker ship off the coast of neighboring Benin on Thursday, the International Maritime Bureau said.Monday's attack happened about 126 miles from the coast of Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital and home to the nation's biggest shipping port. Most of those onboard the unidentified cargo ship fled into a secured room as a gunfight raged, while those on the bridge remained at their posts, the piracy monitoring group said.The captain and chief engineer died of their wounds as the pirates sprayed the ship with gunfire, said Cyrus Mody, an official at the bureau.Mody said the bureau had yet to receive additional information about the ship and its crew, though they did contact authorities in Nigeria. A spokesman for Nigeria's navy and the nation's maritime safety agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.On Saturday, a cargo ship about 80 miles from Lagos came under attack from two boats, the International ...

Shippers are on the alert as instability in Nigeria threatens to worsen Shippers are on the alert as instability in Nigeria threatens to worsen an already serious problem with piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, a key trade route for commodities such as crude oil and cocoa."The risks off Nigeria are increasing because of an increase in militancy in the Delta region," said Rory Lamrock, a maritime analyst at AKE Group, a risk consultancy.The company doesn't have a risk assessment scale for the maritime industry, but Mr. Lamrock added that if it did "we would definitely be pushing it up." Source: The Wall Street Journal

Looking for appointing financial advisers for the deal in order to raise the money Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG) is looking to raise $1 billion in international markets to acquire six LNG carrier ships, and is in the process of appointing financial advisers for the deal, the company said on Saturday.Siene Allwell-Brown, general manager for external relations, told Reuters the operator, which is majority owned jointly by the state oil company NNPC and Royal Dutch Shell, held a board meeting on Thursday to discuss the appointment of advisers for the loan process."We have contacted global banks from which we will choose a financial adviser who will give us the best option through which we will raise at least a $1 billion loan to acquire six LNG carriers for our operations," Allwell-Brown said.It was not yet decided which bank would lead manage the deal, nor from which company they would source the ships.She said did not provide a timetable for when the company expects to close the transaction but said that the loan aims to expand the operations of its shipping subsidiary Bonny Gas Transport Limited, which currently has 24 LNG ships.NLNG was set up over two decades ago to ...

Due to operations of foreign vessels importing refined fuel and exporting crude oil abroad The Nigerian Ship Owners Association yesterday told the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the management of the subsidy regime that the country loses billions in revenue every year due to operations of foreign vessels importing refined fuel and exporting crude oil abroad.Chairman of the association, Chief Isaac Jolapamo, accused the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of deliberately sidelining ships owned by Nigerians from lifting imported fuel both locally and internationally during the fuel subsidy regime.Jolapamo said the NNPC gave bogus excuses that made it impossible for Nigerian vessels to partake in the lifting of oil that were either imported or locally.He said the Carbotage law that came into existence in Nigeria has been flagrantly violated by Nigerian agencies who continued to patronise foreign ship owners to the detriment of their fellow Nigerians not because we do not have the capacity."We have 100 percent capacity to perform as there are more than 250 ships owned by Nigerians but we are easily disqualified not based on the issue of de-certification but because our only crime is that we fly the Nigerian flag," he said.Source: All Africa News

To stem terrorism and related crimes at the port The Minister of Transport, Senator IdrisUmar, has been urged to support the Port Community System (PCS) programme to stem terrorism and related crimeS at the ports.The automation pro-gramme, experts said, also plays a key role in addressing the challenges of port congestion by ensuring faster clearance of cargo in other countries.They observed that many unemployed youths were going into crime.They urged Umar to reposition the seaports for greater efficiency.Addressing reporters on the importance of PCS, the Managing Director, Sea Investment, Mr Gbenga Akolade, said since the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has ensured increase in ship traffic, improvement in cargo throughput and decrease in the turn-around-time of vessels in most of the terminals, government, he said, needs to support the authority on PCS programme.The aim of PCS, he said, is to automate cargo handling operation, make all port operations paperless and enable port community to share information and interface on a common platform online.An integrated security system, he said, should be implemented by NPA to address access control, surveillance and detection, among others.Source: The Nation