By Abisola THOMPSON
Dr Maikanti Baru, the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has directed partners involved in the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) scheme of the corporation to patronise NIDAS, the NNPC’s shipping subsidiary.
DSDP is a scheme by which NNPC sells crude oil directly to off-shore refiners and receive products from them in return.
Baru disclosed this in a statement issued by the Corporation’s spokesman, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, in Abuja, on Thursday.
He said that the patronage would ensure sustained profitability of the shipping Subsidiary.
He gave the directive to two of NNPC’s relevant subsidiaries: Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD) and the NNPC Trading Ltd, during his visit to the agency’s office in Hammersmith, London.
He commended the staff of the subsidiaries and expressed joy on the giant profitability strides recorded by NNPC/NIDAS no sooner than it launched into international freight business.
“I wish to commend NIDAS for beginning to make money for the NNPC. I am particularly elated with the company’s performance which has seen it doing 15 voyages on clean petroleum products from October 2018, just four months after it resumed international freight business,” he said
He urged the company to redouble efforts toward sustaining the current tempo which was in line with the profitability drive of the corporation.
In his remarks, the NIDAS Ltd Managing Director, Mr Lawal Sade, commended Baru for his support and efforts in revamping the company which had been moribund.
“Our recent modest successes wouldn’t have been possible without Baru’s support.
“We are truly inspired by this visit and we are ever ready to achieve the targets set for us by the NNPC Management,” he added.
Sade added that the company would work harder to sustain the tempo by engaging and soliciting the support of sister NNPC outfits and international partners toward improving the corporation’s bottom-line.
He informed the GMD that NIDAS had already signed Contract of Affreightment (COA) with BP and Socar for their DSDP clean cargoes, while discussions with Vitol, Mercuria and Petrocam were on-going.
Established in 2007, NNPC/NIDAS is a fully-owned subsidiary of NNPC charged with the mandate of shipping clean petroleum products into Nigeria and West Africa.
