None of the 102 tankers banned by Nigeria have attempted to enter the country’s territorial waters since state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation introduced the ban on July 15, according to shipping sources and Platts shiptracking software cFlow.
One of the banned vessels — the New Medal VLCC — initially had the Bonny Terminal in Nigeria as its captain’s destination — seemingly making it the first ship on the list to attempt to test the ban, but information from cFlow now shows the tanker will instead be heading to the Republic of Congo.
The New Medal is currently off the coast of the Republic of Congo and is scheduled to arrive at the offshore Djeno terminal later Thursday.
Sources said it can be quite normal for the destination information provided to be changeable or for specific destinations to change in some regions because shipowners are not always given an exact loading area in charter party agreements for West Africa fixtures until closer to the loading dates.
