NIMASA assures stakeholders of safety standards

The Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside, has assured stakeholders of the agency’s resolve to ensure safety standards in the maritime industry.

Peterside, who was represented by the Head of Shipping Development Department, Mr Akin Akinyosoye, gave the assurance at the 10th Oil Trading and Logistics (OTL) Expo held in Lagos.

The director-general, who spoke on: “Competitiveness and Standards in Ship and Shore Logistics for Petroleum Products”, said that the logistics of ship and shore served as the gateway for supply of petroleum products, He said that this involved interconnection of different modes of transport.

Peterside said the demand and supply equation were central to cost and price differentiation, “thereby necessitating enhanced safety standards regulation’’.

The director-general urged ship owners to be mindful of safety and quality standards to enhance competitiveness in the industry. He said that “Safe and secure shipping is a critical pillar in the oil and gas logistics chain.’’

“Many national and international organizations including countries are revisiting and amending safety standards regulations to further strengthen the legal framework relating to ship and shore operations for the oil and gas sector.

“More importantly, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO’s) Marine Environment Protection Committee is reviewing measures to address issues not already covered by Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention.

He said that the IMO was also determined to improve the supply chain of carriage of dangerous goods and hazardous substances. Peterside said that NIMASA would diligently enforce safety standards relating to logistics in the oil and gas sector.

According to him, incidents involving the sector tend to have devastating effects on the marine environment and inhabitants of coastal communities’.

He said that agency had zero tolerance for all forms of criminality on the nation’s waterways through its partnership with the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Air Force, which had yielded so much result.