A chartered marine inspector and ship captain, Anthony Onoharigho, has revealed that 98 per cent of the crude oil extracted in Nigeria is extracted by foreign ships.
Onoharigho, in a talk in Lagos recently, reiterated that most product surveys are carried out by individuals, who are portfolio owners.
“In the maritime industry, Nigeria does not have a single ship to transport our product. Most of our products are built by individuals who are portfolio builders and are all foreigners.
98 percent of the crude that is raised in this country from my investigation is from foreigners and the remaining 2 percent is trading with unclean products in our territorial waters,” he asserted.
He said the oil lift has the potential to create huge job opportunities for Nigerians and also increase foreign earnings for the country.
“We started our crude oil trade with some Asian countries. Iran had about 60 ships transporting their product a few years ago and they still do it through insurance and freight, but we don’t even have a single carrier to transport our crude.
And we have had very educated and enlightened people running the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation for years. I don’t understand why we hate to see Nigeria grow up. Everyone is worried about themselves and the limited benefits they get. This is an area that can create great employment for young Nigerians and increase our purchasing power abroad.”
According to him, “the minimum number of people a tanker can carry is 40 to 50. If you employ our young people, I assume they will be paid in hard currency.
“They will come back to this country and use the money to buy things in our market and that will increase our Gross Domestic Product in terms of foreign exchange earnings.”
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