News

30 January 2020

Largest Nigerian
Ports

The Nigerian Ports Authority issued a press release on 24 January describing new measures intended to reduce congestion in the Lagos Port Complex or Western Ports.

The Western Ports comprise Port Complex, Lagos and the Tin-can Island Port Complex, Lagos. Both
ports have five terminals which handle a range of cargoes from bulk, general
cargo, container and ro-ro.

As of 27 January 2020, vessels
that have had to wait to berth at a specific terminal within the Lagos Pilotage
District will be diverted to an alternative terminal within the same district.

If no suitable terminal is
available within four days, vessels will be diverted to one of the Eastern
ports outside the Lagos pilotage district.

The
Eastern Ports comprise Rivers Port, Onne Port, Calabar Port and Delta Port. The Rivers Port has two terminals that handle liquid,
dry and bulk cargoes.  Onne Port is one
of the largest oil and gas free zone ports in the world and has four terminals
that handle container, oil and gas, dry or wet bulk as well as general cargoes
and other logistic services.

Delta Port has eight terminals
which handle multipurpose cargoes, while Calabar Port has three terminals which
mainly handle oil and gas cargoes.  The numerous
other private jetties that exist within the vicinity of these ports are mainly
used for receiving oil tankers discharging refined oil and gas cargoes into
tank farms.

The decision to deviate vessels
to the Eastern Ports is one of several measures taken to reduce congestion in
the Western Ports and boost traffic in the underused Eastern Ports.

In June 2019 the Nigerian
Ports Authority announced a 10% reduction in harbor dues for the following vessels
calling in the Eastern Ports:

1.                 
container
vessels with at least 250 twenty-foot equivalent units;

2.                 
general
cargo vessels with at least 16,000 metric tonnes;

3.                 
combo
vessels with at least 16,000 metric tonnes;

4.                 
roll-on-roll-off
vessels with at least 250 units of vehicles.

The Nigeria Ports Authority
has also invested to improve facilities in Onne and Warri but the channels of
some of the smaller Eastern Ports (e.g. Koko) are too shallow to accommodate
larger vessels.

If you have any queries,
please do not hesitate to contact Victor Konwea of Budd Nigeria (budd.nigeria@budd-pni.com).

Information provided by:

BUDD Nigeria

11/13 Warehouse Road

Apapa

Lagos

Tel: +234 1 453 7825

budd.nigeria@budd-pni.com