Controversies have continued to trail the smooth take off of SiFAX owned Ocean and Cargo terminal at the Warri port , following disagreement between the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over issues bothering on dredging and underwater pipeline installations.
Finding revealed that the two agencies of the federal government are yet to conclude on the dredging modalities due to some of the underwater equipment owned by NNPC.
Calling of bigger ships at the facility may likely suffer major setback as a result of the disagreement at the Delta port but the concessionaire has completed all administrative and operational requirement to run a full fledge seaport terminal.
It was also gathered that due to shortfalls and delay, the concessionaire has already commenced barge operations to complement its business.
The SIFAX Group-led consortium, Ocean and Cargo Terminal Services Limited with 82.70% was declared the preferred bidder to operate Terminal B, Warri Old Port.
In April 2018, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), which announced the result of the concession process , said Ocean and Cargo offered the sum of $25,510,000.64 to emerge the preferred concessionaire after its rival-Ecomarine Consortium- was disqualified for improper submission of its bidding documents.
The concession is for a period of 25 years.
Also confirming that development to our correspondent over the weekend, spokesman of SIFAX Group, Muyiwa Akande told our correspondent that the terminal has commenced light operations which involves barging.
To further buttress the ongoing rift between NPA and NNPC over dredging of the old Warri Port in furtherance aid navigation of bigger vessels, Akande reiterated that the General Manager in charge of shipping has been seconded to head operational activities at Ocean and Cargo Terminal at the Warri seaport adding that the concessionaire commenced maritime related businesses.
He also disclosed that the underwater pipeline has also militated against to smooth take off of shipping operations adding that NPA and NNPC are in talks over the issue of dredging.
Akande maintained that: “Where we are with Warri Port is that some kind of operations have actually started but it is not the type of operations we are look at.
“Because the major issue in Warri Port has not been sorted out, which has to do with the draft.
“As much as we really want to bring bigger vessel to that port, the issue of dredging of the draft is a serious challenge to us.
“Government is trying to fix this issue but for the interim what we are doing now is that since the draft good enough for barging ,we are doing a little bit of that here and there but the core vessel operations have not started because the draft is not there.
“We are engaging the government to know how soon they can resolve the issue as soon as possible and there are assurances given to us but that has not been addressed.
“There are discussion on going between our team and NPA but the timeline has not be sorted out,”he lamented.
Our correspondent who requested for an update on the dredging of Warri Port from General Manager Corporate and Strategic Communication, NPA Adam Jatto for about 72 hour did not respond to our messages put across to him.
By Roland Ekama
