Firm: We engaged barge intercepted by NNPC to transport ‘legally produced oil’

Petralon 54, a subsidiary of Petralon Energy Ltd, says it engaged barge FP Amangwu to transport legally produced crude oil to Ajapa floating storage and offloading (FSO).

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited had said it intercepted a barge carrying 700 barrels of illegal crude oil, which was declared as sewage, in Opete, Udu LGA, Delta state.

Reacting to the national oil company’s disclosure, the energy firm said First Priority Resources International Limited (First Priority), the operator of the barge, named FP Amangwu, is its former vendor.

The company highlighted some facts of its transaction with the concerned vendor.

As a company licensed to carry out exploration, production and disposal of hydrocarbons, Petralon 54 said it engaged the First Priority-owned barge to transport “legally produced and government authorised crude oil from its operated Dawes Island marginal field to the Ajapa FSO, operated by Brittania-U Nigeria Limited, which is the offtake terminal”.

“Not being sea going, the barge was berthed at NPA Jetty, Warri pending offtake of the crude oil onboard by a sea going vessel,” the company said.

“Upon completion of the contract on March 28, 2023, all the tanks of the barge, FP Amangwu, were fully evacuated with all crude conveyed pumped out, except the cumulative residual volume of ca. 100 barrels at the bottom of the tanks that pumps could not pick up – these are called dead volumes or sludge.

“This fact can be attested to by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the relevant oil and gas operations regulator that supervised and signed-off on the evacuation operation and ensured the barge was emptied.

“Accordingly, the barge was released by Petralon 54 Limited to its owners First Priority on March 30, 2023 at the NPA Jetty in Warri, Delta State, which signaled the end of the contract between Petralon 54 Limited and First Priority.”

‘HOW OWNERS OF THE BARGE DISCOVERED CRUDE IN THE BARGE’

Explaining further, Petrolan 54 said the barge was subsequently moved to Ejovi Jetty, located in Warri, Delta state, by its owners on April 17, 2023.

“In May 2023, the owners of the barge, who by contract were to clean the tanks of their vessel post activity reached out to Petralon 54 Limited, claiming that at the point of their cleaning the barge, they discovered that crude was left on board the barge and requesting that Petralon 54 Limited should evacuate same,” the statement reads.

“We responded to this claim advising that it was incorrect because we had evacuated our crude completely from the barge.

“Owing to the magnitude of the claim, we immediately followed up on our response by sending a representative to verify the claim. Consequently, samples of the fluid in the barge tanks were taken and tested at an NMDPRA-certified laboratory.

“The results confirmed that what the owners of the Barge – FP Amangwu, considered as crude, was actually oily wastewater, a combination of the residual amount of the cumulative crude dead volume of ca.

“100 barrels which the staff of the barge owners had now accumulated into two tanks as they cleaned out the other tanks, and the sea water the staff of the owners of the Barge said they pumped into the various Barge tanks in washing the barge and had also accumulated into these same two tanks.

“First Priority thereafter wrote to us, still requesting that we undertake the cleaning of the Barge ourselves on the basis of the fact that Warri was outside their jurisdiction, and that they had no experience in cleaning.

“Taking over tank cleaning was contractually impossible for Petralon 54 Limited to do as the cleaning was contracted to First Priority, and is outside our remit, we however reached out to the NMDPRA on behalf of First Priority, for the recommendation of a certified waste management company.

“Guided by NMDPRA, two NMDPRA responded certified waste management companies were identified, of which Diamond Energytech Limited was considered more responsive and was subsequently engaged to undertake the cleaning operation.

“The scope of engagement of the waste disposal company (Diamond Energytech Limited) was tank cleaning, evacuation and transportation of oily water, treatment, and disposal of oily water from the Barge. The operation would be overseen by First Priority alone as the cleaning transaction was directly between they and Diamond Energytech.

“From this point, we stopped interfacing with both First Priority and Diamond Energytech as the contract with First Priority had terminated, and the cleaning transaction was between both parties alone (First Priority and Diamond Energytech).”

The company said it firmly believes that the development should be properly investigated by the authorities.

“This should include all the parties: Nigerian security forces and Tantita Security Services, the relevant regulatory authorities, and other related parties,” Petralon 54 added.