Nigeria lacks drydocking facilities for NLNG vessels — NSML

 It costs between $300,000 and $500,000 to dry-dock a vessel, according to prevailing international rates.

Dockyards in Nigeria include Niger Dock, Dormanlong, Kaztec Engineering, Naval Dock among others. They were established to conserve foreign exchange, building indigenous capacity as well as promoting technological advancement in the nation.

However, the vessel management company of NLNG, NLNG Ship Management Limited (NSML), over the weekend said none of the dockyards available in Nigeria can dry dock any of her LNG vessels.

Speaking in Lagos, the Managing Director, NSML, Abdul-Kadir Ahmed said his company would have wanted to dry-dock its 11 LNG vessels and one LPG vessel in Nigeria due to the huge revenue such would generate for the country, but for lack of dry-docking facility that can handle an LNG vessel in the country, the company is forced to dry-dock her vessels outside the country.

He said, “Yes, capital flight is an issue when it comes to dry docking of our LNG vessels. However, underpinning that issue of capital flight is the capacity and ability to do it here in Nigeria. As a Nigerian ship management company, it’s so much easier for me to dry-dock our vessels here in Nigeria, that is if there is anywhere I can do it but, at the moment, there is no facility in Nigeria that can dry-dock vessels of the sizes that we manage.

“I don’t want to sound critical but realistic, there is currently no facility in Nigeria that can handle any of our LNG vessels. I am not saying there are no dry-docking facilities in Nigeria but, if you understand the nature and size of an LNG vessel, then we will all know that there is nowhere in Nigeria that such vessels can be dry-docked as at today.”

Ahmed however disclosed that the company planned to set up a standard dry-docking facilities in the country to put an end to capital flight that is occasioned by dry docking vessels outside Nigeria.

“But, most importantly, underpinning ability is capacity development, and we have already embarked on that path. As part of our Bonny Gas Transport (BGT) Plus Project, there was a scheme to bring in Samsung and Hyundai together with some Nigerian investors to establish a dry-docking facility in Nigeria.

” Unfortunately, the scheme has not fully taken off, but we are still optimistic. We hope that when it fully takes off, it will commence effectively at the right standard.

“We are optimistic that this happens because as a Nigerian company, it is cheaper and more affordable for us to patronize dry-docking facilities in country.

“Unfortunately, at the moment, there is no such facility in the country that can handle our vessels, and this has left us with no other choice than to patronize dry-docking facilities outside the country,” he lamented.