The Coordinator, Government Relations, Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN), Mr. Temisan Omatseye, has urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to engage Nigerian flagged vessels in the movement of crude oil and petroleum products.
Omatseye, in his response to a report that the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu had said the use of vessels to move crude oil coastwise was currently too expensive, said the NNPC was spending so much on the movement of crude on the coast because of its continuous patronage of foreign flagged vessels. He described as ridiculous, the amount which the NNPC was reported to have spent on the charter of such vessels.
Omatseye wondered why the NNPC should continue to charter foreign flagged vessels when there were Nigerian vessels that could provide the same service. He said SOAN had written to President Muhammadu Buhari whom it hoped would enforce the cabotage law stipulating that Nigerian shipowners should be patronized.
