OpeOluwani Akintayo
09 November 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos – Oil marketers in Nigeria have spent approximately N1.6 trillion on lighterage over the past 30 years.
Oando’s Chairman, Mr. Wale Tinubu, disclosed this at an event in Lagos on Tuesday while describing the challenges oil marketers face in the importation of petroleum products into Nigeria.
Lighterage is the process of transferring cargo between vessels of different sizes, usually between a barge and a bulker or oil tanker. It is undertaken to reduce a vessel’s draft in order to enter port facilities which cannot accept very large ocean-going vessels.
According to him, 90 percent of the N1.6 trillion flows out of the country, leaving just 10 percent.
Tinubu explained that marketers consistently face the very expensive discharge of products into Apapa ports which erodes their profits.
He stated that sometimes, “it cost oil marketers an average of $900,000 to discharge petroleum products, more than it costs to ship a cargo of products from Europe”.
