NPA, NLNG move to mend fences

NPA, NLNG move to mend fences
… Boost smooth sailing on Bonny Channel

Smooth movement of ships in the Bonny Channel is expected to receive fillip, as the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) make concerted moves to resolve certain outstanding issues between them.
This emerged at a recent meeting between the two organisations, when the Executive Director, Marine and Operations, NPA, Engr. David Omonibeke, led a high-powered NPA Management delegation on a one-day working tour of the NLNG facilities in Bonny Island.
Omonibeke assured the NLNG Management of the NPA’s continuous efforts to meet all the needs of the company to enhance effective and uninterrupted ship movements in the Bonny Channel.

Omonibeke said that the working tour of the NLNG facilities was designed to revitalise the cooperation between the two organisation’s within a renewed synergy, which, according to him, would ensure a beneficial working relationship to both parties and the nation at large.
He explained that the NPA was aware of the development plan of the NLNG to increase production, using Trains 7 and 8, and that it is conscious of the fact that this increase would result in increased traffic, and, therefore, promised that the NPA would ensure that the Bonny Channel is expanded, as the need arises, to ensure safety of navigation and protection of the marine environment.
Omonibeke hinted that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the NPA and the NLNG on the training of pilots, would soon to be signed, adding that the Pilotage District Board would soon be inaugurated to give impetus to the NPA’s regulatory functions.
While reiterating that the NPA would, henceforth, fast-track all issues to do with the NLNG, to ensure quick action, Omonibeke commended the NLNG for contributing to the NPA’s Continuous Professional Development (CPD) training programme for pilots over the years, as well as for supporting the operations of the NPA in Bonny, which according to him, is exemplary corporate social responsibility (CSR) worthy of emulation.
Also speaking, the General Manager, NLNG Shipping, Capt. Temilola Fatai Okesanjo, who led the NLNG delegation to the meeting, while commending the NPa for initiating the meeting, praised the incumbent NPA Management for resolving some lingering major issues between the two organisations.
Okesanjo, while describing the NPA delegations, visit as a new opportunity to improve relation between the two organisations, stressed the need not to see the relationship between the two organizations as merely “a service provider and client relations”, but as a joint effort by the duo for the greater growth of the nation in the oil and gas sector.
During the visit, the NPA delegation undertook a guided tour of the 2.27-square kilometre NLNG plant, consisting of gas production line, storage and refrigeration facilities, gas turbine electricity generators, LNG export and passenger jetties, as well as the residential area.



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