Niger Delta Watch

(Reuters) Ship brokers in the U.S. Northeast keep getting dubious requests for vessels to carry Nigerian crude even as Nigeria attempts to crack down on illegal oil exports, ship brokers say.

In the past two weeks, several ship brokers in New York and Connecticut received chartering inquiries from an unknown Montreal-based oil agent calling itself Adams Financial Services International for a Very Large Crude Carrier to load Nigerian crude oil at Port Harcourt.

But the inquiry failed to garner any interest because Adams Financial has no track record in the shipping industry and, apparently, no line of credit either.

Oil smuggling continues to plague OPEC-member Nigeria despite a government crackdown one year ago, as the profits from smuggled shipments keep luring dealers.

Industry experts estimate that about 50,000 to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil are smuggled out of Nigeria, with alleged help from senior officials in the local oil industry, the government and military.

In a recent case, the agent representing an oil supplier in Nigeria, Mulics Petroleum and Gas, sought a tanker to load 4 million barrels of Bonny Light crude for coastal African voyages between Nigeria and Togo, ship brokers said.

The agent said that Mulics is one of the few oil marketing firms representing Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC).

However, Aminu Baba-Kusa, head of crude oil marketing for NNPC, said he had never heard of Mulics and that the offer was probably not genuine when contacted by Reuters last week.

Labels: Adams Financial Services International, Aminu Baba-Kusa, Connecticut, Mulics Petroleum and Gas, New York, Nigeria, Nigerian National Petroleum Corp, Oil Smuggling, Port Harcourt, Togo

# posted by ndw @ 1:47 PM