NIDAS Shipping Services, a subsidiary of state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has revitalised its charter operation in London after a seven-year hiatus.
The chartering and operation desk of NIDAS is expected to be responsible for fixing tankers to ship crude from Nigeria as well as petroleum products into the country for NNPC.
“NIDAS’s re-entry is in tandem with the ongoing strategic re-engineering of some NNPC subsidiaries to ensure multiple income streams and value addition to the corporation,” said Ndu Ughamadu, general manager of NNPC’s public affairs division.
NIDAS has already chartered the 74,999 dwt Res Cogitans (built 2004) to load gasoline that NNPC purchased from Mercuria in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp region during early November.
The company has also fixed the 50,903 dwt Atlantic Bridge to lift jet fuel from from El Dekheila Port, Egypt earlier this week.
Both cargoes will be delivered into Nigeria.
While NIDAS will initially focus on spot trading, its long-term goal is to own and operate vessels, NNPC said.
The shipping requirement could be large for Nigeria, which is often Africa’s top crude exporter and fuel importer.
To secure more business opportunities, NIDAS will have the right of first refusal to ship crude sold in NNPC’s annual contracts, according to the statement.
The company will enjoy the same right to ship cargoes involved in the direct-sale-direct purchase agreements, NNPC’s crude-for-product swap deals.
Nigeria has had a plan to build a national tanker fleet of nine to 10 suezmax crude tankers and 20 MR product carriers, which could be chartered in or acquired in secondhand markets by 2019, shipping officials said earlier this year.
However, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries member’s past attempt didn’t materialise.
NIDAS was aiming to control a significant owned and chartered tanker fleet when previously entering the charter market in 2010, but the ambition eventually fizzled out.
The company was originally established as a joint venture between NNPC and shipbuilder DSME. It’s now wholly owned by the former.
With the renewed ambition, NNPC has appointed its chief operating officer for downstream business Henry Ikem Obih as NIDAS’ chairman and Lawal Sade its managing director.
