NPA Under Scrutiny as Escravos Water Channel Faces Major Threat

Although ordinarily, the ‘desilting’ of the Escravos Channel, a vital waterway in Nigeria’s Delta State, should be routine, it has been facing a recurring problem of clogging, threatening  one of the country’s major economic arteries, writes Emmanuel Addeh.

The Excravos channel, which connects the Niger Delta to the Atlantic Ocean, plays a critical role in Nigeria’s oil and gas exports, as well as cargo transportation, but is now seemingly being abandoned by the concerned authorities.

Essentially, desilting is the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of the sea, lakes, rivers, harbours, and other water bodies as sedimentation-the natural process of sand and silt washing downstream – gradually fills channels and harbours.

It is often focused on maintaining or increasing the depth of navigation channels, anchorages, or berthing areas to ensure the safe passage of boats and ships.

This is because vessels require a certain amount of water in order to float and not touch bottom. But since massive ships carry the bulk of the goods imported into Nigeria, dredging plays a vital role in the nation’s economy.

In general, several factors have contributed to the clogging of the Escravos Channel, according to checks by THISDAY, including siltation, wherein the channel’s shallow depth and slow currents allow sediment to settle, reducing its navigability.

This challenge at the Excravos water route has further been worsened by  poor maintenance as well as the much talked about climate change, leading to rising sea levels and increased storm frequency which worsen coastal erosion and sedimentation.

This severe clogging comes with its economic and environmental implications, including reduction of cargo capacity as vessels must lighten loads, thereby increasing transportation costs.

It also increases transit time, since, as expected, ships face delays, affecting supply chains, resulting in economic losses, reduced trade volumes and increased costs which have harmed local businesses.

Clogging up the Excravos Channel has also caused some environmental degradation and general disruptions to port operations,  leading to job losses.

This issue has raised serious concerns among the users of the water route as they, and by extension, Nigeria, continue to lose huge revenues from their operations due to heavy build-up of silt on the waterway, hindering smooth passage of vessels.

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the operators insist, has not been helping matters, thereby further compounding the problem. The NPA aside failing to do its job, they complained, is also delaying some players in the system who are interested in getting the job done in the interest of Nigeria.

THISDAY learnt that as a result of the slow paperwork for the ‘desilting’ of the channel by the NPA, the federal government agency that manages the operations around the affected area in the Warri axis of Delta state, many of the route users are now frustrated.

The NPA plays a crucial role in maintaining the nation’s waterways, including the Escravos Channel. Although there have been attempts in the past to address the, they have not borne the expected fruits, especially since it is not conducted regularly.

If the NPA does what is statutorily expected of it, this will improve navigation and reduce transit times, increase cargo capacity and reduce transportation costs, enhance economic growth and competitiveness as well as protect the environment by reducing sedimentation. But sources who chose to remain anonymous, said nothing has been done for years.

According to them, several vessels have  been running aground in the channel, further compounding the mess, because the NPA, which should ensure the orderly movement of vessels around the area, has largely shirked its responsibility.

“Typically, this is the channel that allows access into the Warri port and there are multiple users. It is also a channel that provides access for the tankers that bring in Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) for the country.

“NNPC is a key user because those are tankers that are commissioned by them. Now, with regards to crude oil production for the country,  some of the assets in the western Niger Delta corridor also convey crude oil from the fields via mid-range tankers shuttling from the asset through the channel to offshore location for export.

“Now, this channel, over the years as is typical with nature has been silted. So, increasingly, it has been difficult for vessels to navigate and once aground will require assistance to re-float with high-powered tug boats, ” one of the tug boat providers said.

THISDAY checks showed that in the past , several ocean-going vessels owned by Matrix Energy and other ship owners/charterers including MV Adebomi 3, MT Matrix Triumph, MT Matrix Asa, and MV Zola had run aground within the same axis.

It was further learnt that since the maximum draft at the channel during high tide is about 6.2 meters, many vessels now routinely get stuck in the area, leading to loss of huge revenues, including expenditure on heavy machinery for towing the affected vessels.

Before they are towed, these vessels are said to block the entire channel, thereby making it impossible for other vessels to move along the route for sometimes as many as 10 days, leading to significant financial losses.

Aside the oil companies, including Chevron and  Shell, which use the route, it was further understood that other local small scale endeavours also use the line to move bulk products.

To ensure sanity on the water route pending dredging, THISDAY learnt that the users have clamoured for NPA to maintain stricter oversight on the issue of draft restrictions in order to avoid the occurrence of blockage of the channel by overloaded vessels.

“You would expect that the responsible agency would ensure that it remains navigable because of its importance because these operators are providing a service, and they are supporting the country’ cash flow plans and revenue generation, whether through the production making its way to the terminals.

“But businesses are experiencing frustration and there’s a heightened sense of emergency to do something, anything at all, on that channel. There’s an agency there that governs or marshal out user rules and regulations.

“But you can imagine that people also play ‘try your luck’. They will load up their vessels, pass the acceptable rate for the draft, and will just try to see if they can find their way through. On the average, you could see vessels that are grounded for seven days or over 10 days.

“And what it means is that as soon as you have that, there are businesses that are suffering. There’s zero activity  for the next seven days, and the ramifications or consequences is the inability to deliver service timely,” one user told THISDAY.

Another channel user added: “Every channel has a limit of six, seven, eight metres and there’s always a control tower that tells the vessels to come in at the right time, depending on their draft then.

“But what is happening now is that because that place is silted, and the chiefs in Abuja and Lagos are not making the right decisions, the harbour master in Warri and his team still give vessels green lights, even when he knows that their drafts are not accommodated by the channel.”

The user pointed out that once they get in there, they will run  aground, then a  tugboat will be sought for to pull it out. About three days ago, he stated that there were three blockages, which had taken an average of eight to nine days to open up. It seems this is another business for tugboat vendors which the operators are wondering what the motive is.

“So, you can understand that business activity in that axis has crumbled. And this is where you have oil production and other activities. This is the channel. There are two channels in Warri. One is the Escravos channel. One is the Forcados channel. They’ve allowed the Forcados channel to silt a long time ago. So, that one is abandoned.

“Now, this one, if they allow it to go this way, it means that it will get to a point where they will even abandon any marine economic activity in the Warri axis as well,” the source added.

According to the source, it is expected that parties move to urgently resolve the business challenge that is currently impacting business activities in the Niger Delta.

“We all are aware these could be another issue that leads to not improving the commercial and business activity in the Niger Delta.

“It seems the issue today is because as usual in Nigeria, everybody wants his interest to be covered, reason it’s taking NPA time to close the dredging mobilisation for such a critical national interest (what  could be  termed a  water gateway) to deteriorate.

“NPA, if needed should explore initiative to fast track, including seeking the support of the users who  ordinarily pay for the use of the channels. This is like a toll highway, as such funding shouldn’t be an issue.

“Clearly, the impact of this on the PMS distribution in the country is obviously from the long queues.  The impact on production shut-in  is almost a billion dollar in this time of below par production and shortage of Foreign Exchange for the country ,not to mention the added cost to the business due to long waiting of vessels at the channel ,”  THISDAY was told.

In May this year, about seven daughter vessels carrying a combined total of 150 million litres of petrol were reported to have been trapped on the high sea at the Escravos channel, leading to a worsening of the fuel supply crises.

Also, with the channel having not been dredged for years, the fear of grounding has made heavy tonnage merchant ships to abandon the channel, throwing the ports in Warri, Koko and Sapele that are served by the channel into redundancy.

But in a response, the NPA listed the various efforts it had made to solve the problem, describing the Excravos Channel issue as ‘peculiar’.

 “The Warri/Escravos Channel is quite peculiar in the sense that its dredging must of necessity be preceded by reconstruction of the Escravos breakwater which had collapsed and is resulting in unprecedented rate of silt at the entrance of the Channel.

“Fortunately  the federal government has approved the Authority’s inclusion of the comprehensive rehabilitation of the breakwater  in the Port Modernisation Programme  which is to be implemented shortly,” the NPA said through its spokesman, Ikechukwu Onyemekara.

He added that the rehabilitation, once achieved, will pave the way for regular and routine maintenance dredging for the entire channel.

According to him, the last time a dredging campaign that specifically targeted the critical entrance area covering over 21.0 kilometres was in 2022.

The NPA spokesman recalled that the Authority made a case for urgent federal government intervention and had recently secured  administrative approval to undertake maintenance dredging in the most critical section of the channel on an emergency basis.

“The contractor has concluded the in-survey and is already mobilising to site. It is expected that the campaign would be completed within 16 weeks.

“Once concluded, it would provide the much needed temporary respite pending the completion of the rehabilitation of the breakwater which would then be followed by regular/routine maintenance of the entire channel,” he added.

As a measure of ensuring business continuity, the Authority, he said, has approved the ‘lightering’ of vessels laden with products to minimise incidences of vessel grounding and facilitate easy evacuation where violations of the advertised draught results in grounding.

“In addition to the above is the Authority’s enhanced installation of navigational aids/buoys and robust stakeholder engagement with the host community and shipping lines to adhere to the ‘mitigatory’ measures being put in place to make the best of the situation,” he stated in the response.