Libby George News

The death toll from a boat accident in Nigeria's southeastern state of Anambra has risen to 76, the president said on Sunday. The vessel capsized on Friday amid heavy flooding in the Ogbaru area of Anambra, according to officials on Saturday, when they said at least 10 people had died and 60 were missing.In a statement posted on Twitter on Sunday, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said that emergency authorities had confirmed the higher death toll.Authorities are working to rescue or recover any missing passengers…

Equatorial Guinea has detained an oil tanker capable of carrying 2 million barrels after it attempted to load in Nigeria without proper paperwork, both countries said this week.The Nigerian navy said in a statement that the Heroic Idun, a very large crude carrier (VLCC), was attempting to load oil at the Akpo SBM on Aug. 8 without due clearance from state oil company NNPC, and that it "resisted arrest" when ordered to stop.It was not immediately clear who was the vessel's owner or operator.

A Danish frigate has killed four pirates in waters south of Nigeria in an operation to protect shipping in the Gulf of Guinea, the Danish military said on Thursday.The Esbern Snare, deployed last month to the Gulf of Guinea amid heightened security risks from pirates, on Wednesday spotted a fast-moving vessel carrying eight suspected pirates near a number of commercial ships, the Danish military said.The incident took place in international waters,25 to 30 nautical miles south of Nigeria's territorial boundary, a spokesman said.The motorboat, spotted by a helicopter deployed by the frigate, wa

A court in Lagos sentenced 10 men to 12 years in prison on Friday for kidnapping the crew of a Chinese-flagged merchant vessel last year, the navy said, a verdict that officials hope will help tackle piracy in the waters off Nigeria's coast.Federal high court Justice Ayokunle Faji, who also fined each man 250,000 naira ($608) for each of the three counts for which they were charged, said their actions in kidnapping 18 crew from the FV HAILUFENG II in May 2020, were "an embarrassment…

Nigeria’s navy plans to strengthen its measures to root out and punish personnel who collude with kidnappers and criminals, its new naval chief said.Kidnappings in the Gulf of Guinea, which covers 2.3 million square kilometers and borders some 20 countries, hit a record last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau.Well-armed, violent pirates operate there out of Nigeria’s hard-to-police Delta swamps, and experts say their increasingly bold tactics show that better enforcement is badly needed.Rear Admiral A.Z.

Kidnappings rose by 40% in the Gulf of Guinea in the first nine months of this year, and the region off West Africa's coast now accounts for 95% of global maritime kidnappings, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said on Wednesday.Eighty seafarers were taken in the Gulf of Guinea, a 2.3 million sq km (888,000 sq m) area bordering more than a dozen countries, sharply up from the same period in 2019, and the pirates are attacking further out to sea than before, the IMB said.Pirates…

A Nigerian court made the first convictions under a new anti-piracy law, giving hope to the world's shipping fleets that legal reforms will help stem rising attacks in the Gulf of Guinea.The three men fined by the court in Port Harcourt, Nigeria's oil hub, on Tuesday were among nine accused of hijacking the tanker MV Elobey VI off Equatorial Guinea in March and securing a $200,000 ransom for the crew.The merchant shipping industry has long pressed Nigeria to take action in the area…

Nigeria's petroleum regulator has ordered oil and gas companies to reduce their offshore workforce and move to 28-day staff rotations as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, according to a circular seen by Reuters.Health experts fear a widespread outbreak in Africa's most populous country, which has about 200 million inhabitants, and the country is keen to protect oil production, which provides 90% of much-needed foreign exchange.A coronavirus case on an offshore rig could spread quickly among workers and have a potentially devastating impact on production.Sarki Auwalu…

Nigeria will only allow cargo vessels that have been at sea for more than two weeks to dock in its ports to prevent the spread of coronavirus, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Thursday.Health experts fear a widespread outbreak in Africa's most populous country of 200 million people which could overwhelm its creaking healthcare system.Nigeria has closed its land borders and international airports in the last week to curb the spread of the virus.Buhari said on Twitter he had issued a directive that "only cargo vessels that have been at sea for more than 14 days be allowed to dock in our ports…

It costs as much as five times more to ship goods into Nigeria than it does to deliver items via other African ports, consultancy SBM Intelligence said in a note on Wednesday.SBM tracked shipments from the European Union into Appapa, a key import hub in Nigeria's commercial capital of Lagos, Durban in South Africa and Tema in Ghana over three months.The results showed that total costs to get items into Lagos are five times higher than in Durban and three times higher than in Tema.Local transport added the biggest amount, costing 10 times as much in Lagos compared with the other portsThe figure

Ten Turkish sailors were taken hostage by armed pirates who attacked a Turkish-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Nigeria, the vessel's owner said on Tuesday, adding that another eight sailors were left safely aboard.Turkey's foreign ministry said the sailors were seized on Saturday evening. After the pirates left the ship it was taken to Ghana's Tema port, and Ghanaian and Nigerian authorities are working on returning the captured sailors, the ministry said.Shipping company Kadioglu Denizcilik said its ship…

The shipping industry and oil refineries are not doing enough to prepare for new rules cutting the amount of sulfur that vessels can emit from 2020, according to the head of the International Energy Agency's (IEA) oil industry and market division.The new rules drastically cut the amount of sulfur that the world's ships can emit, from 3.5 percent currently to just 0.5 percent. Ships that install "scrubbers" that remove sulfur as the fuel is burned can continue to use higher sulfur fuels…

Costs to rise from roughly $100 bln today; just 2 pct of global fleet to have scrubbers in 2020. Global shipping fuel costs are likely to rise by a quarter, or $24 billion, in 2020 when new rules limiting sulphur kick in, consultants Wood Mackenzie said on Wednesday. The ballooning costs will come as the change in regulations forces a portion of the world's fleet to switch to lower sulphur, but higher cost, fuels such as marine gasoil (MGO) and ultra low sulphur fuel oil. The International Maritime Organization's (IMO) rules targeting air pollution will cut the maximum amount of sulphur emissions that ships worldwide can burn to 0.5 percent of fuel content by 2020, from 3.5 percent currently.

A backlog of crude cargoes has built up off the coast of China, limiting prospects for new shipments to the world's largest oil importer, trading and shipping sources said. The amount of oil floating in tankers off China has risen partly due to tax changes and an anti-pollution drive that have depressed oil demand from small, independent refiners, known as "teapots". Maintenance has curtailed run rates at others. This has combined with aggressive selling, particularly from West Africa, that pushed vessels to the region even when early warning signs showed crude demand could falter.

A sharp increase in demand for distillates following new shipping fuel rules will fade quickly, the International Energy Agency said on Monday. New rules implemented by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) will significantly cut the amount of sulphur that the world's ships can burn in their engines from 2020, leading to a close to 1 million barrel per day (bpd) rise in gasoil consumption at the expense of high-sulphur fuel oil. While ships can continue to burn higher sulphur fuel if they install scrubbers, and can also use liquefied natural gas- powered engines or new low-sulphur fuel oil blends, a lack of preparation has led most to expect a dramatic boost in marine gasoil consumption, as it is the easiest option available.

Nigerian crude sells into tenders, while Angolan trades more quickly on spot. * ExxonMobil had purchased two of the three Olombendo cargoes sold this week, traders said. * All three are likely to sail to the Mediterranean or the United States rather than China, the usual destination. * Angola's Sonangol sold its cargo of Dalia, which it had been offering at dated Brent minus 70 cents a barrel. The buyer was not clear, but traders said it was a western company rather than Asian. * Statoil had also sold a cargo of Angola's Saturno. * Sonangol was still offering another cargo of Dalia at dated Brent minus 70 cents a barrel and a cargo of Saxi at dated Brent plus 75 cents a barrel. * Nigerian crude cargoes Erha and Forcados were selling into tenders, but spot trade was limited.

The International Maritime Organization intends to ban ships that do not have equipment to strip sulphur from carrying fuel that has a sulphur content above new limits in 2020, an IMO official said on Thursday. The ban, which still has to go through two formal approval steps, was presented at IMO compliance meetings earlier this month. It would make enforcing the new limits on sulphur in shipping fuels significantly easier, cutting into the expected rule-breaking. "There wasn't that dissent…

Nigeria is set to export more of its largest crude oil stream, Qua Iboe, on a barrel-per-day basis in April, while loadings of two other main export grades will also rise, loading programmes showed on Friday. Forcados exports will also rise, to 262,000 bpd in April on 10 cargoes, up from 248,000 bpd on 11 cargoes in March. Bonny Light exports in April are also expected to edge higher on a bpd basis to 163,000 bpd in April, up from 161,000 bpd in March. The total Bonny loading volume will slip to 4.9 million barrels on five cargoes, down slightly from 4.99 million barrels on six cargoes in March.

Ships which do not meet cuts to the amount of sulphur they can burn in their engines risk being declared "unseaworthy", the International Maritime Organization (IMO) said on Thursday. Shippers and refiner are not sure how they will comply with rules finalized last year which require ships worldwide to cut sulphur emissions from 3.5 to 0.5 percent by 2020. The IMO said there would be no delays or exceptions to the coming rules, whether or not the industry takes the steps it needs to comply, and warned that all parties face consequences if they do not play their part. Edmund Hughes, head of air pollution and energy efficiency with the IMO, said that vessels owners are taking a huge risk if they choose not to comply with the rules.

Total WAF loadings for Asia hit record. Shipments of West African oil to China are set to surge to a record in January, boosting overall fixtures heading east to their highest in at least 14 years, a Reuters survey of shipping fixtures and traders showed on Wednesday. China's loadings are expected to jump by more than 20 percent from December to more than 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, the survey showed. The figure is the highest barrel-per-day total to sail for China since September, and is some 37 percent above the same month last year. Traders said China's appetite was whetted in part by the first batch of government import quotas for 2018, which were issued in late December, but announced in November.

The Netherlands has given provisional approval to Gunvor to add a fuel upgrading unit at its Rotterdam refinery, according to a document seen by Reuters, as the international oil trader prepares for tough new environmental rules on shipping fuels. The rules from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), due to come into effect in 2020, aim to cut sulphur emissions produced by ships, creating a challenge for shipping companies and oil refiners. Refiners have to decide whether to invest in new capacity to convert the old-style bunker shipping fuel - known as high-sulphur fuel oil - into higher quality products such as diesel. The Dutch authorities…

Nigeria's push to keep its citizens stocked with fuel is drawing close to a million tonnes a month of gasoline from Europe - including now on a rare Suezmax vessel booked by Vitol. The country is working overtime to replenish its tanks after shortages and queues popped up across the nation of more than 180 million in early December - sparking a scramble for state oil company NNPC. The restocking comes as gasoline demand in other regions was waning in winter, and has helped boost fuel and refining margins in Europe just as the continent's refineries prepare to shut for seasonal maintenance. The Vitol-booked, 115,000-tonne cargo aboard the newly built Sea Icon is sailing to West Africa from the Latvian port of Ventspils, according to Reuters ship tracking and trading sources.

United States taking share from OPEC nations in Asia, Europe, as China’s biggest U.S. crude buyer to double imports. In the two years since Washington lifted a 40-year ban on oil exports, tankers filled with U.S. crude have landed in more than 30 countries, ranging from massive economies like China and India to tiny Togo. The repeal has unleashed a flood of U.S. shale oil, undercutting global crude prices, eroding the clout of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and seizing market share from many of its member countries. In 2005, before the shale revolution, the United States had net imports of 12.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and fuels - compared to just 4 million bpd today. U.S.