The cost of berthing a petrol-laden ship in Nigeria is five times higher than that of its West African neighbours – a development that is pushing up the country’s petrol prices, findings have revealed.
Analysis and expert opinions show that exorbitant ship berthing costs at Nigerian ports are contributing to the high lightering expense, a key element of the country’s landing cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol.
Industry data showed that bringing a 30,000-tonne vessel of PMS to berth is currently $299,069, while the average cost in its West African neighbours like Ghana, Benin Republic, Senegal, and also Tanzania stands at $52,472, which is five times lower.
According to a senior energy expert close to Nigeria’s shipping sector, “The high cost of berthing a ship in Nigeria, which is often aggravated by unreceipted extortions by port officials when vessels arrive in the country, are unavoidable costs in Nigeria’s petroleum. If Nigeria’s ports were fully functional, lightering cost would be a needless expense”, he added.
Lightering cost is associated with the transfer of petrol from one vessel (usually the mother vessel) to a smaller vessel (usually called the daughter vessel). This is typically done in the open sea with the vessels positioned alongside each other, according to a downstream industry newsletter.
Findings revealed the recourse to ship-to-ship transfer is due to the deep draft requirements (above 12m) of most of the other vessels bringing the refined products from Europe; It also showed few jetties can successfully berth such vessel capacity in Nigeria, as most jetties and channels are just about 7.0m.
Oil marketers have said the high landing cost of petrol, currently hovering around N720, has led to many petroleum products depots being deserted. Also, petroleum product dealers have also indicated that filling stations were closing down in huge numbers on a daily basis because the industry was getting increasingly difficult to maintain.
Speaking at the National Executive Council meeting of the Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria, in Abuja, Benneth Korie, its national president, said many depots were either dry or out of stock.
According to energy analyst, Tunji Ademoye, “The subsidy era gave the green light to lots of inefficiencies and avoidable expenses; now that the subsidy era is over, Nigeria needs to run a more efficient programme on how it delivers petrol”.
