Detained Norwegian supertanker: No berthing permit,no oil lifting — TotalEnergies Official
By Uthman Salami
A leading International Oil Company ( IOC) in Nigeria, TotalEnergies has explained that there was neither a berthing permit nor oil lifting by the arrested million barrels detained Supertanker.
One of the high ranking officials in the company made this known to Nigerian NewsDirect yesterday.
While affirming that the Supertanker vessel was indeed chartered by one of its partners for regular crude oil lifting, the company did not allow it to berth after it discovered that it possessed no requisite documentation.
The news of the detained Supertanker with capacity for three million barrels of oil, about three times the one million barrels per day (bpd) currently being produced by Nigeria, had many in the oil and gas industry held in palpable shock, laying further credence to fear of foreign collaborations in the spate of oil theft being witnessed in the country.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), which confirmed the vessel’s presence and intended loading operation to be illegal due to lack of relevant clearance by the agency.
The State owned oil firm further contacted Total SA demanding additional information regarding the intended loading operation of the supertanker at the Akpo offshore oil field.
At the current $100 a barrel, the report indicates that the federal government would have lost $300 million in a single operation by one Supertanker.
According to a report by one of the leading National Dailies, the vessel, MV Heroic Idun, has the capacity to take 100,000 barrels of crude oil daily and would have had to stay in Nigerian waters for at least 100 days to take up its full cargo of three million barrels before sailing without being seen and apprehended by the Nigerian Navy, upon which billions of taxpayers’ funds have been expended lately to equip.
The Equatorial Guinea Navy arrested the oil supertanker, which had apparently evaded arrest in Nigeria after it was seen around the AKPO Oil field on August 7.
The Nigerian Navy also confirmed that the ship in question had been seized in Equatorial Guinea after the 300,000 metric tonnes facility escaped from its forces.
The vessel, with International Maritime Organization number 9858058, was arrested on August 12.
But speaking with Nigerian NewsDirect yesterday, a source within TotalEnergies said there was no transfer of crude volumes from Akpo to the vessel in question, noting that it had no involvement in the subsequent actions of the Supertanker.
He said, “Although the vessel in question (chartered by one of our partners on a scheduled/regular crude oil lifting) did approach the Akpo FPSO, it was not allowed to berth since all the necessary approvals had not yet been obtained, in line with our normal operating procedure.
“There was no loading of crude nor any transfer of crude volumes from Akpo to the vessel. We have no comment/involvement in the actions of the vessel after that point.”
He gave assurances that “TotalEnergies will always operate within the laws of the nation and insists on the fulfillment of all regulatory and statutory requirements at all our installations, including Akpo.”
The ship had 26 crew comprising 16 Indians, eight Srilankans, a Polish, and one Filipino.
