Kunle Adekogbe/
An indigenous company, Vewat Shipping Limited, has faulted a newspaper report 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 coronavirus.
Managing Director of the company, Mr. Stephen Fatomilola, told AONENEWS that it was not true that the vessel’s voyage was cancelled 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.
After the contract had been revoked, he said his company had no choice other than to seek the approval of NPA to cancel the vessel’s voyage, a request that was rightfully granted.
He said, “Vewat Shipping Limited was appointed agent to Mt Chloe by Messrs JoJu oil and Gas. Mt Chloe was to come and load approximately 500mt of crude oil from Mt Asteris.
“As an agent, Vewat Shipping Limited declared the vessel at 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.
“While pilot was to go onboard to pilot vessel inward, the engine, unfortunately, broke down. Engineers were despatched to fix the fault but, as we speak, they are still working on the engine.
“Because it was taking too long to fix the engine, 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 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.”
He said the 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.
Fatomilola said he was therefore surprised to read the report which quoted the chairman of the Ports Consultative Council (PCC), Chief Kunle Folarin, as saying that Mt Chloe’s voyage was cancelled due to concerns about the vessel being contaminated with coronavirus.
“I’m pretty sure that Otunba Kunle Folarin, who is the PCC chairman, while granting the interview, did not have knowledge of what happened before the voyage of the vessel was cancelled. He also appeared to be ignorant of the procedure followed during cancellation of the vessels by shipping agents at the daily berthing meetings,” Fatomilola said.
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