The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has warned that any fuel being imported into Nigeria for ship bunker must meet international conditions in line with implementation of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) rule on the reduction of carbon emissions from ships.
The Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, announced in Lagos that starting from this January, IMO would outlaw the use of any fuel onboard vessel with more than 0.5 per cent sulfur content.
In order to comply with the rule, Dakuku said that NIMASA has started engaging the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria Customs Service, Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) and the refineries to ensure that fuel available for ships meet international condition.
However, he disclosed that the agency would now embark on monitoring of ships to check compliance, adding that the agency has acquired a facility known as “TytroX” to help monitor the level of consumption of fuel onboard ships.
He said that the IMO has created a window for developing countries, NIMASA is working assiduously irrespective of the window.
He added: “We have started a lot of engagement with shipowners, captains of ships and seafarers, we have started engaging the DPR, NNPC, Customs, SON and the refineries to ensure that we have fuel available to meet that international condition. Any fuel being imported for ship bunker must meet that condition”
“We are developing an enforcement regimeeverybody that would be transparent and known by , when we come onboard your vessel and you don’t comply, you must know the consequence. We are also building capacity of our staff in house to encore the regime. So we are very serious about the new sulfur limit cap regime in 2020.”
He said Nigeria is one of the first countries in Africa that has installed Titro X onboard vessels to help monitor fuel consumption onboard vessels, adding that, “it give us an idea of the sulfur content. We have started the trial run under the MTTC Network in Africa, we are the only country in Africa for now,” he said.
- Media Report