Indigenous shipowners threaten strike over $90m NNPC debt

INDIGENOUS ship owners, under the aegis of the Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN), are set to give the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) two weeks ultimatum over failure to pay N90 million debts owed the ship owners over charter services rendered in the last eight months.

Disclosing this to the Nigerian Tribune exclusively, President of SOAN, Dr George MkOnyung, explained that if the indigenous ship owners go ahead and declare a strike over refusal of the NNPC to pay the debt, it might result in fuel scarcity since chartering services are rendered for oil lifting processes.

According to the SOAN President, “Most of the ship owners want to down-tools because for the past eight months, they have been rendering charter services to the NNPC without being paid. The NNPC owes ship owners various amounts of money running into millions of Dollars.

“The market is so poor. The price NNPC is paying these indigenous ship owners is less than half of what the foreign ship owners get, yet the indigenous ship owners are being owed that much.

“At our last meeting, the ship owners agreed to first give NNPC a warning. We agreed that in two weeks’ time, if the NNPC has not paid any part or whole of its debt, ship owners will refuse to load petroleum products. And you know what this means. If ship owners refuse to load petroleum products, then there will be fuel scarcity in the country.

“Many of these ship owners are struggling to meet their financial obligations due to this debt. Many are owing banks. Many are struggling to pay their workers salaries.

“There is a particular indigenous ship owner that is owed $75 million. Another company is being owed $3.5 million. The entire debt being owed to ship owners is running into over $90 million. These companies are struggling to stay afloat due to this debt. With the economic situation in the country right now, you can imagine what these shipping companies are going through.

“You know what it entails to manage a ship. You know the financial implications associated with managing a vessel. These indigenous ship owners get paid less than half of what the market says, yet NNPC is struggling to pay them.

“Now that the NNPC has transformed from a corporation to a limited liability company, these ship owners are worried. What would become of this debt if it keeps accumulating?

“In two weeks’ time, our members will stop loading fuel in protest, and that will lead to fuel scarcity, which we don’t want to happen.”