Trending Topics

Nigeria Searching for a Dry Dock for Maintaining Crude Vessels

Ship_YardNigeria does not have a dry dock for maintaining and repairing large crude vessels, a major drawback for carriers sailing to the country, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Co. spokesman Tony Okonedo told Reuters.

Only South Africa had such a facility on the continent, Okonedo said, meaning that ships traveled a long distance for repairs. Nigeria has two facilities that can only accommodate small vessels, he said.

Okonedo said Samsung Heavy Industries and Hyundai Heavy Industries have both agreed to a $30 million commitment toward the construction of the facility, which would be located in Badagry, near Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos.

“It could potentially be used to transport the 2.5 million-barrel-a-day crude business in Nigeria,” Okonedo said on the sidelines of a media briefing.

Okonedo said the NLNG organized a road show earlier this year to market the dry dock project to investors, which included multinational oil companies in Nigeria, with large exploration and upstream activities.

He said NLNG, which is owned by Nigeria’s state-oil company NNPC, Royal Dutch Shell, French oil company Total and Italy’s Eni was in discussions with a strategic investor for the project.

It appointed France’s BNP Paribas and Guaranty Trust Bank to help raise around $1.6 billion two years ago to build six new LNG carrier ships, expanding its fleet to 30.

Read more at www.channelstv.com

Back to top