113 oil tankers’ ban: Intertanko orders Buhari and NNPC to reverse the ban

The global oil tanker association, Intertanko in a protest letter has asked President Muhammad Buhari and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to reverse the ban on 113 oil tankers who were its member or face the collective action of global umbrella association, Reuters has reported.

According to the association, the ban on the 113 oil tankers by Nigerian state should be lifted immediately as no grounds have been given for the measure. Intertanko’s protest is stemming from the letter NNPC issued on July 15 claiming a directive from President Muhammadu Buhari says with immediate effect, vessels mainly VLCC crude oil tankers, have been banned from Nigerian crude oil terminals and also from Nigerian waters.

                              General Counsel InterTanko, Michele WhiteReuters quoted General Counsel Michele White in the protest letter saying: INTERTANKO protests in the strongest possible way that these bans should be lifted with immediate effect until grounds and evidence for the ban have been given to each vessel and vessel owner/operator, and the owner/operator has had an opportunity to respond.

 The list of banned tankers was not exhaustive and already further tankers are being added. Our current understanding is that these ships may have been targeted due to a failure to provide official outturn figures at their last call and/or commercial differences between load and discharge figures for cargo and free water.

This may also however be part of a general crackdown by President Buhari on corruption in Nigeria’s maritime, oil and gas, financial services and security sectors, including illegal bunkering and fuel sales. Reuters said.

President Muhammad Buhari

What will be the next line of action by the two sides is still not clear enough to be predicted by anybody but President Buhari resolve to fight corruption in the oil and gas seems to be total.