IMO 2020 Sulphur Cap: NIMASA begins Monitoring of Fuel Into Nigeria
By DAPO OLAWUNI
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has warned that any fuel being imported into Nigeria for ship bunker must meet international conditions inline with implementation of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) rule on the reduction of carbon emissions from ships.
Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside while speaking with journalists in Lagos said starting from January 2020, the IMO will outlaw the use of any fuel onboard vessel that contains more than 0.5% sulfur content.
As way of Nigeria complying with this rule, Dakuku said that NIMASA have started engaging the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Nigeria Customs Service, Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) and the refineries to ensure that fuel available for ships meet international condition.
The NIMASA boss also announced that the agency would now embark on monitoring of ships to check compliance, even as he said that the agency has acquired a facility “TytroX” to help monitor the level of consumption of fuel onboard ships.
According to him, “The IMO has created a window for developing countries, but we are working assiduously irrespective of the window”
“We have started a lot of engagement with shipowners, captains of ships and seafarers, we have started engaging the DPR, NNPC, Customs, SON and the refineries to ensure that we have fuel available to meet that international condition. Any fuel being imported for ship bunker must meet that condition”
“We are developing an enforcement regime that would be transparent and known by everybody, when we come onboard your vessel and you don’t comply, you must know the consequence”
“We are also building capacity of our staff in house to encore the regime. So we are very serious about the new sulfur limit cap regime in 2020”
“We are one of the first countries in Africa that has installed Titro X onboard vessels to help monitor fuel consumption onboard vessels and give us an idea of the sulfur content. We have started the trial run under the MTTC Network in Africa, we are the only country in Africa for now” he said
