AS THE NATION BLEEDS HELPLESSLY : 38-yr-old NNPC vessel repaired for N10.9bn to sell for N10.5m —Investigation •It is a disaster —Presidency •It is a long story —NNPC ... TribuneNews

THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is currently engulfed in controversy over a 38-year old single-hull oil vessel, which has gulped about N10.9 billion in maintenance and set to be disposed for N10.5 million, as its viability is being questioned due to new International Maritime Organisation (IMO) regulation outlawing single-hull vessels as oil tankers from 2015.
Investigations by the Nigerian Tribune revealed that the oil vessel in question, MT TUMA, was built in 1975 and bought for N543 million in 1985 by NNPC.
Gibocol, a Dutch firm financed the vessel on behalf of the NNPC during the administration of Professor Tam David-West as Petroleum Minister.
It was taken to Setubal, Portugal for repair works in 1985.  The repair gulped about N775 million.
However, on completion of repair works, the vessel was brought to Bonny water to be used as a storage facility for surplus Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) because Nigeria was producing  surplus AGO but there was no export market for the commodity, with MT TUMA collecting excess AGO produced at the refinery.
Meanwhile, MT TUMA stayed on Nigerian waters until the production of diesel started to go down. When there was no diesel coming from the refinery, MT TUMA allegedly became an idle vessel, virtually doing nothing, starting from late 90s.
MT TUMA was later anchored offshore Lagos and was allegedly turned into an office/hotel by the Petroleum Products Marketing Companies (PPMC) coordinator of the vessel.
The MT TUMA coordinator was the one in charge of arranging vessel trans-shipment and lightening operations. Instead of the radio being in the office, the MT TUMA coordinator allegedly went onboard with full complement of expatriate officers and Nigerian crew.
NNPC was reportedly sustaining the full crew on board MT TUMA with the ship virtually doing nothing. Analysis of feeding an individual on board an international vessel revealed that it would take about N1,550 equivalent of $10 per day to feed an individual.
On board the MT TUMA were allegedly 26 people with NNPC allegedly spending N3 million daily to feed the whole crew on board the vessel.
During the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, moves were made to get approval from the government for the vessel to be dry-docked, which would cost the government more funds. The ex-President approved the dry-docking on May 24, 2007, five days before leaving office.
It was meant to be a routine dry docking which was to last three months, but was abandoned for almost six years, while it cost the nation about N10.9 billion.
The contract, which was for the general engineering repairs and overhauling, including pre-voyage works/certification, was expected due for completion within 12 months, from December 16, 2007, for the vessel to return to Nigeria.
Two other contracts for “manning and management,” as well as consultancy went to Messrs Royal Marine and Spares Limited and Messrs Mare Maritime Limited respectively.
However, the contractor allegedly missed the deadline, following several breaches in the contract terms, a development that resulted in the vessel’s loss of its classification.
In spite of the reported failure of the Brazilian firms to deliver on the contract, successive managements at the NNPC allegedly continued pumping more money in hard currency, running into several billions of dollars, to service the contract to keep the engine of the vessel running throughout the five years it anchored in the dockyard in Brazil.
At a point, it was gathered that the vessel could only be towed as it junketed from one dockyard to another, as the engine parts were reportedly dismembered, rendering it incapable of sailing on its own.
In April 2009, the House of Representatives Committee on Public Procurement carried out a probe into suspected irregularities in the award of the contract, following reports that the NNPC did not follow due process as spelt out in the provisions of the Public Procurement Act.
The lawmakers, who were also concerned about NNPC’s lack of requisite capacity to manage a vessel the size of MT TUMA, recommended in their report its immediate sale whenever it returned to Nigeria.
The vessel found its way back into the country in May 2012 without the maintenance job being allegedly done properly.
A brand new MT TUMA will cost N6.2 billion now, but the vessel dry-docking process in Brazil by the NNPC gulped about N10.9 billion.
Leaked information revealed that the corporation had put a price-tag of N10.5 million on the vessel.
Responding to enquiries on phone, the General Manager, Public Affairs of the NNPC, Dr Farouk Umar, said “MT TUMA is a long story dating back to many NNPC administrations before the current administration. To get detailed information, we will need to get the relevant files of those NNPC administrations that were involved one way or the other in the past. MT TUMA has preceded so many NNPC administrations.”
Built in 1975, MT TUMA, which is about 280 by 41 metres in size, with deadweight capacity of 136,100 tonnes, is one of Nigeria’s main crude oil storage tankers with IMO tag 7388700, acquired by the government to facilitate the transportation of crude oil within and outside the country.
The vessel, which was first dry-docked in 1998, was due for another dry dock repairs in 2003. However, due to some bureaucratic delays, the repairs were delayed till June 21, 2006 when the vessel, which was laden with petroleum products, suffered extensive damage when its engine room exploded during its berth at the Beachland Estate, Ibafon, Apapa, and Lagos.
The explosion was reportedly as a result of a massive leakage of petroleum products, which flooded the engine room for several days.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Maritime, Mr Leke Oyewole, hovever ,said he his not aware of the existence of MT TUMA.
“I do not have details about that vessel, but if those statistics are correct, it is a disaster that we have spent so much money and we will scrap it for such a little, but in the interim, until 2015, if we use the vessel the way we are supposed to use it, we would have also recover large sums of money,”he said.