COVID-19: Why oil vessel, MT Chloe, was barred from Tin Can Port

By Muyiwa Lucas

An indigenous company, Vewat Shipping Limited, has refuted claims that an oil vessel, for which it was appointed as agent, was stopped from berthing at the Tincan Island Port in Lagos due to concerns over the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The Managing Director of the company, Mr. Stephen Fatomilola, said in a statement that it was not true that the vessel’s voyage was stopped by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), rather, it was his company that requested for the voyage to be cancelled due to a technical hitch.

According to him, the vessel, Mt. Chloe, was chartered by an oil company, Messrs. JoJu Oil and Gas, to load approximately 500mt of crude oil from Mt Asteris, a motor tanker located at Kirikiri Lighter Terminal of Tincan Island Port.

He said after completing all the necessary documentations prior to berthing, the vessel developed a technical fault which was taking too long to rectify thus forcing the charterer, Messrs JoJu oil and Gas, to cancel the contract. The cancellation of the contract, he explained, left the firm with no option than to seek the approval of NPA to cancel the vessel’s voyage, a request that was rightfully granted.

“As an agent, Vewat Shipping Limited declared the vessel as the daily berthing meeting by its commercial manager, Mr. Evans Ngerem (Tincan Island Port), supervised on a daily basis by the port manager. Afterwards, all documents were submitted to traffic department and provisional bills (naira and dollar) were paid and approval granted for vessel to proceed for her loading,” he said.

The firm explained that while the Captain was already for the sail, the engine developed fault, leading to the dispatch of engineers to fix the fault. This repair, Joju further said, was taking longer time to fix; hence the charterer could no longer wait owing to the fall in crude oil price as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. This led to the termination of the vessel’s contract.

“After termination of contract, as the agents, we did what was necessary by applying for the cancellation of the voyage of the vessel. This was done at the daily berthing meeting during which a written application for cancellation was submitted and duly approved, fact that the cancellation of the voyage was done at the instance of the shipping agent was also reflected on the daily shipping position under the column of voyage cancellation,” he added.