NNPC GMD markets Nigerian shipping firm in London

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, has urged partners involved in the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) scheme of the corporation to patronize its shipping subsidiary, NIDAS Limited. 

Baru passed the advice to two of NNPC’s relevant subsidiaries: Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD) and the NNPC Trading Ltd, during his visit to the NNPC office in Hammersmith, London, where he met the staff of both the London office and NIDAS.

DSDP is a scheme by which NNPC sells crude oil directly to offshore refiners and receive products from them in return.

A statement by NNPC spokesman, Ndu Ughamadu, on Thursday said Baru was elated by the giant profitability strides recorded by NNPC/NIDAS no sooner than it launched into international freight business.

“I wish to commend NIDAS for beginning to make money for the NNPC. I am particularly elated with the company’s performance which has seen it doing 15 voyages on clean petroleum products from October 2018, just four months after it resumed international freight business,” he said.

NIDAS Ltd Managing Director, Lawal Sade, who spoke during the visit of the GMD, lauded him for his support and efforts in revamping the company, which he said prior to Baru’s assumption of office, had been moribund.

Sade further stated that the company would work harder to sustain the tempo by engaging and soliciting the support of sister NNPC subsidiaries and international partners towards improving the corporation’s bottom line.

Sade informed the GMD that NIDAS had already signed Contract of Affreightment (COA) with British Petroleum (BP) and Socar for their DSDP clean cargoes, while discussions with Vitol, Mercuria and Petrocam are ongoing.

Established in 2007, NIDAS is a fully owned subsidiary of NNPC charged with the mandate of shipping clean petroleum products to Nigeria and West Africa.