The Federal Govern­ment has given the Ni­gerian National Petro­leum Corporation, NNPC, the approval to engage in legal oil bunkering as a way to effectively checkmate ac­tivities of illegal bunkerers on the nation’s territorial waters, its Group Managing Director, Mr. Andy Yakubu has said.
According to experts, bun­kering is like running a gas station on sea. It provides fuel such as marine diesel, low pour fuel oil, lubricants and others to vessels operating in the coun­try’s territorial waters.
Sometimes, bunkering com­panies also provide fresh water to vessels on sea.
He said the nation was in dire need of reputable and le­gitimate bunkerers so as to ar­rest illegal bunkering and oil theft on the high seas.
“The NNPC is currently at the final stage of entering into the fuel bunkering business. There is a legal type of fuel bunkering, permitted by law and done within the ambits of industry-sanctioned processes.
“Unfortunately, this legal bunkering has been overshad­owed by the many illegal bun­kering activities that are carried out across our waters, causing untold harm to our economy and environment”.
Recall that the Direc­tor, Department of Petro­leum Resources, Mr. George Osahon,had recently informed stakeholders of President Goodluck Jonathan’s approval for the return of bunkering op­erators to the nation’s territorial waters.
But because of illegal bunkering activities, which became rampant at a time, the Federal Government sus­pended bunkering operations in Nigerian territorial waters pending a review of the policy.
Osahon said the resump­tion  of bunkering operations in the country would generate revenue for the government and create employment op­portunities that would buoy the economy.
According to him, the re­sumption of bunkering ser­vices in the country will save oil, gas and marine operators the stress of going to Senegal, Cape Verde and Cote D’Ivoire to fuel vessels operating in Ni­gerian territorial waters.
“It is unfortunate that we called for bunkering the last time but it did not take place. We are grateful to Mr. Presi­dent for approving the op­erations. Issues of the past will continue to be discussed,” the DPR boss said.  Following government’s approval of the resumption of bunkering operations, the Di­rector in charge, Directorate of Marine Services, Nigerian Navy, Navy Captain S. O. Aye­ni, warned that any ship that must bunker in the country’s territorial waters must fulfil the requirements of the Navy.
“The operator will be ex­pected to present to the Nigeri­an Navy headquarters an appli­cation for bunkering clearance detailing the vessel involved, location of bunkering opera­tion or discharge point, quan­tity of bunker fuel and duration of the operation,” he said.
Ayeni further explained that the operator must disclose the source of his bunker fuel, adding that in view of the poor state of the refineries, the prod­uct must not come from the country, otherwise it would be regarded as stolen oil.
He also said the operators must obtain licences and cer­tifications from the DPR and the Nigerian Maritime Admin­istration and Safety Agency on the quality of the products and the vessels.
“All these conditions will be verified at the Directorate of Marine Services in Lagos for validity and correctness; and if they are in order, recommen­dation is made to the Naval Headquarters for prompt ap­proval of a particular bunker­ing operation as captured in the application,” Ayeni added.

NNPC gets FG’s nod to commence fuel bunkering