Blue Economy
Dangote Orders 1,800-Vessel Fleet From China, Leaving Nigerian Shipowners Out of the Build
Dangote Orders 1,800-Vessel Fleet From China, Leaving Nigerian Shipowners Out of the Build
By Oghenewoke Osaweren | Waterways News
Dangote Group has confirmed it is negotiating directly with Chinese shipyards to build a new tanker fleet large enough to carry the cargo its Lekki refinery will generate once the plant doubles its output and none of that construction work is headed for a Nigerian yard.
Group Vice President for Oil and Gas, Devakumar Edwin, disclosed the plan to members of the Nigeria Chamber of Shipping (NCS) at the Chamber’s 2026 Members’ Evening in Lagos on September 10. He said the refinery currently loads 75 to 100 ships a month — about 900 vessel calls a year — at its current output of 700,000 barrels per day. Once the plant’s capacity doubles to 1.4 million bpd within five years, that figure will climb to roughly 1,800 vessel calls annually.
Edwin said Chinese yards are the obvious destination for the order because of their sheer scale. Clarksons Research data cited at the event put China’s share of the 2025 global orderbook at close to 67 percent by number of vessels and 62 percent by tonnage; China’s own Ministry of Industry and Information puts those figures even higher, at 69 percent of orders and 56 percent of completed deliveries. The first vessels from the new order are expected to arrive as early as 2029.
The turn to China is also a turn away from Nigerian-flagged tonnage. Edwin said the refinery’s export terminal can only be efficiently served by vessels of at least 155 metres, since anything smaller means longer turnaround at the facility’s Single Point Moorings and Nigerian-owned operators tend to run smaller ships. He noted Dangote’s cement, sugar and flour businesses already move roughly 300 vessels a year and that Nigerian shipping capacity has not been able to absorb that volume either.
Rather than commit Dangote’s own order book to Nigerian yards or Nigerian-flagged operators, Edwin placed the responsibility for closing the gap on financiers and regulators. He said Nigerian vessel owners need cargo-backed financing, assured cargo and supporting infrastructure to survive, warning that “new vessel owners struggle and businesses fail, even when finance is available” without those in place. He pointed to tugboats, pilotage, dry-docking, shipbuilding and FPSO servicing as segments where Nigerian firms could still compete.
NIMASA’s vessel registry has not kept pace with the volumes now moving through the refinery’s offshore terminal, which has logged roughly 1,100 tanker calls since start-up. Dangote’s refinery expansion is being financed in part by an IPO of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals opening for subscription on September 14, expected to raise about $1.6 billion.
Nigeria Watch
Edwin’s numbers are a direct measure of how far the domestic maritime sector still sits from the cargo its own biggest industrial group is generating. This is not a hypothetical demand signal for Nigerian shipowners to plan around, it is a live order, worth 1,800 vessel calls a year at maturity, that Dangote has already decided Nigerian yards and Nigerian-flagged tonnage cannot fill.
That decision lands squarely on the CVFF question this desk has tracked for years. Edwin’s call for “cargo-backed financing” and assured freight volumes is, in substance, the same argument Nigerian shipowners and NIMASA have made in every CVFF disbursement debate: that finance without guaranteed cargo does not build a fleet. The difference is that Dangote — the entity best positioned to be that guaranteed cargo — is choosing to secure its own tonnage in China rather than underwrite Nigerian-owned vessels to carry it. A conglomerate calling for the ecosystem it could itself anchor is not a new failure mode for this sector, but it is a costly one to watch play out at this scale.
There is also a labour and registry dimension NIMASA and the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy cannot afford to treat as secondary. Vessels ordered, built and potentially flagged outside Nigeria carry no obligation to crew with Nigerian seafarers or register under the Nigerian flag. With roughly 1,100 tanker calls already logged at the refinery’s offshore terminal and climbing, every one of those calls represents seafaring, dry-docking and support-vessel work that Nigerian capacity is not currently positioned to claim. Edwin’s own list of where Nigerian firms could still compete — tugboats, pilot boats, dry-docking, shipbuilding, FPSO servicing — reads less like an opportunity map and more like an inventory of what has already been ceded.
For informal and cooperative operators represented by bodies like WABOTAN and ATBOWATON, the story underlines a familiar asymmetry: the largest cargo owner in the country is capable of building an 1,800-vessel-a-year relationship with a shipping industry, and it has chosen to build that relationship with Chinese yards rather than Nigerian ones.
Whether NIMASA, the NCS or the Ministry can convert that into pressure for local content commitments on registry, crewing or ancillary services, will say more about the seriousness of Nigeria’s cabotage and shipbuilding policy than another year of CVFF headlines will.
Oyetola Woos Turkish Investors for Fisheries Sector, Vows to Protect Artisanal Fishers
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, has thrown Nigeria’s fisheries sector open to Turkish investment, insisting that any fresh capital coming into the industry must strengthen and not sideline the millions of Nigerians who depend on artisanal fishing for a living.
Oyetola made the pledge while receiving a delegation from Turkish fisheries and aquaculture firm CRD Impex, led by the company’s General Manager for Fisheries, Cem Tarhan, at his Abuja office. He told the investors the Federal Government was ready to create an investment-friendly climate for credible local and foreign players willing to bring capital, technology and modern value-chain solutions to the sector, on condition that such investment remains inclusive.
“We welcome investors who can bring capital, technology, expertise and modern value-chain solutions to the sector. However, investment must be inclusive and sustainable. It must complement and empower our artisanal fish producers, not undermine their livelihoods,” the Minister said
He listed inadequate infrastructure, poor access to modern fishing technology, weak cold-chain systems, limited processing and storage capacity, and gaps in market access as the major constraints holding back the sector, framing each as an opening for targeted investment rather than a dead end.
The Turkish team, which included CRD Impex founder Hanefi Cardak and Tetra Underwater Services founder Ersun Buyukgoze, toured key fisheries and aquaculture points around the country to size up the terrain first-hand. Stops included the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal in Lagos, the Ozumba Mbadiwe Fish Market in Lekki, and the Esuk Nsidung Beach Market, a major waterfront seafood hub in Calabar, Cross River State.
The Ministry described the visit as part of a broader push to attract serious investment into Nigeria’s blue economy while keeping the welfare of artisanal fishers central to that growth.
Nigeria Watch
The Turkish courtesy call lands squarely in the pattern this desk has tracked all year: big-ticket investment pledges for Nigeria’s waterways, paired with familiar assurances that the small operator won’t be crowded out. The test, as always, is what happens after the photo-op.
Nigeria’s artisanal fishing communities occupy the same economic space as the informal boat operators represented by WABOTAN and ATBOWATON, river- and creek-dependent Nigerians whose livelihoods rise or fall on decisions made far from the waterfront. The infrastructure gaps Oyetola cited which include, weak cold-chain systems, poor storage and limited market access, all mirror the exact complaints this desk has documented from inland waterway operators for years but modernisation announced from Abuja rarely reache the jetties.
Turkish capital chasing Nigerian fisheries and aquaculture is a genuinely new thread, distinct from the Strait of Hormuz shipping story or the CVFF disbursement saga this desk has followed closely. But the underlying question is the same one that has defined Oyetola’s tenure at the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy: will “inclusive investment” translate into contracts, cooperative partnerships and cold-chain infrastructure that artisanal operators can actually use or will it, like so many blue-economy pledges before it, stall at the courtesy-visit stage?
Waterways News will be watching for the first concrete CRD Impex commitment — site, timeline, or local partnership — as the marker of whether this one is different.
NPERA, NPA Open Technical Talks on Handover of Inland Dry Port Functions
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News
The Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) have begun formal engagement on transferring inland dry port oversight to NPERA, marking the start of what both agencies describe as a critical phase in operationalising Nigeria’s new port regulatory framework.
At a management-level meeting between the two agencies, officials focused on the technical groundwork for the handover, chiefly how to draw clear lines of responsibility and avoid duplication among the government bodies with a stake in inland dry port administration.
NPERA’s Director-General/CEO, Dr Akutah Pius, framed the transition as flowing directly from the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, whom he credited with steering the process toward the sector’s broader development. Akutah was emphatic that NPERA could not carry out the transfer alone, and said the buy-in of every relevant stakeholder agency would be needed to see it through.
He indicated that the Ministry would stay central to coordinating the process even as specific mandates move to the agencies best placed to execute them. Akutah also pointed to the Minister’s earlier interventions during the NPERA Bill’s passage through the National Assembly, which he said had defused inter-agency friction and set the stage for the cooperation now underway.
Describing the purpose of the meeting, Akutah said it was meant to formally kick off the transfer of inland dry port responsibilities to NPERA in fulfilment of its statutory role as economic regulator of the ports sector. He singled out Section 51 of the NPERA Act as a provision that now needs to be put into practical effect to keep the transition orderly and ensure stakeholder roles are properly aligned.
To manage the process going forward, the NPERA boss proposed setting up a joint committee drawing in NPERA, NPA, the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), and the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy. He argued that inland dry ports matter well beyond the coastline. They extend maritime sector benefits into Nigeria’s hinterland and reinforce the country’s trade and logistics chain.
Responding on behalf of NPA, Managing Director Dr Abubakar Dantsoho welcomed the move and pledged his agency’s full operational and technical backing throughout the transition. He said the process had started on the right footing, and that NPA would furnish updated data on the current state of inland dry ports to inform further discussions, expressing confidence that continued engagement would help the agencies meet their shared objectives.
NPA’s Executive Director, Engr. Lekan Badmus, also commended NPERA for setting the collaboration in motion, calling the meeting a solid first step toward a smooth integration. He noted the two agencies have now moved into the technical phase of the exercise, with close attention being paid to eliminating overlapping functions.
Closing the meeting, Akutah said the proposed joint committee would reconvene with the Minister to seek further guidance and agree on next steps to keep the transition on track.
Nigeria Watch
This meeting is the first visible test of whether the NPERA Act’s promise of a rationalised port regulatory architecture can survive contact with Nigeria’s crowded agency landscape. Section 51’s transfer of inland dry port functions to NPERA looks straightforward on paper; in practice, it touches NPA’s traditional port administration turf, NIWA’s inland waterways mandate, and the Ministry’s coordinating role all at once, precisely the kind of overlapping jurisdiction that has bedevilled reform efforts elsewhere in the sector, most visibly in the long-running NIWA-LASWA tussle that only the Supreme Court could settle.
The proposed joint committee of NPERA, NPA, NIWA, and the Ministry, is a sensible mechanism, but Waterways News readers who have followed the CVFF disbursement saga know that Nigerian maritime governance has no shortage of well-designed committees whose outputs never quite reach implementation. What will matter is whether Akutah’s “technical phase” produces a binding timeline, not another round of goodwill statements.
For inland dry port operators and the hinterland trade corridors that depend on them, the stakes are practical: unclear jurisdiction between NPA and NPERA has historically meant slower cargo evacuation, duplicated levies, and uncertainty for freight forwarders planning routes away from the congested Lagos ports. If this transition is handled well, it strengthens the case for dry ports as genuine pressure valves for Apapa and Tin Can. If it stalls in inter-agency turf negotiation, it becomes one more entry in the gap between policy pronouncement and delivery that this desk continues to track.
Worth watching: whether Minister Oyetola’s office sets an explicit deadline when the committee reconvenes, and whether NIWA, whose inland waterways mandate intersects with dry port hinterland connectivity, gets more than a seat at the table.
Two More Tankers Struck in Strait of Hormuz as Attack Count Hits Five in a Week
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
Two more tankers have been hit while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, leaving two seafarers with minor injuries and pushing the number of reported attacks or security incidents against commercial vessels in the waterway to at least five since 16 September.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said an inbound tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile on Monday. Two crew members sustained minor injuries, but the vessel stayed under its own power and continued to its next port, with no environmental impact reported.
Hours later, UKMTO issued a second alert after an outbound LPG tanker reported being struck by debris from unknown projectiles. All crew were reported safe and the vessel also continued its voyage. Authorities are investigating both incidents, and UKMTO has not attributed either attack to a specific actor.
The two strikes build on a Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) advisory covering three earlier attacks between 16 and 18 September, one of which saw a tanker’s hull breached by a projectile, sparking a fire. JMIC continues to rate the threat level in the strait as “severe,” citing a high likelihood of deliberate hostile action and pointing to a pattern of harassment by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — drone overflights, surveillance of merchant vessels and VHF hailing, alongside the direct attacks.
Traffic through the chokepoint remains sharply depressed. Only 17 commodity vessels were visibly transiting over the weekend, down from 37 the week before and against a pre-war daily average of roughly 125. That figure excludes vessels sailing with their AIS transponders switched off, and JMIC notes a persistent gap between visible and actual traffic.
Nigeria Watch
For Nigerian maritime stakeholders, the Hormuz crisis is no longer a distant Gulf story. It is a cost line. Every fresh escalation feeds directly into the war-risk insurance premiums and freight rates that Nigerian importers, refiners and shipping agents ultimately absorb, since global tanker and container capacity pulled off the Hormuz route tightens supply elsewhere and pushes rates up across long-haul trades, including those serving West African ports.
The renewed attacks also sharpen the stakes around Nigeria’s push for a stronger voice at the IMO Council table and its broader blue-economy diplomacy under Minister Adegboyega Oyetola. A sustained Gulf disruption is exactly the kind of systemic shock that tests whether Nigeria’s seat translates into influence over how global shipping risk, insurance and rerouting decisions are made, rather than Nigeria simply absorbing the downstream cost.
Locally, the episode is a reminder of the layered nature of “maritime security” as a policy word: the Deep Blue Project and Gulf of Guinea security architecture address piracy and armed robbery close to home, but Nigeria’s ports and shippers remain exposed to security failures thousands of kilometres away in the Gulf.
Waterways News will continue tracking how the Hormuz situation feeds into freight cost pressure at Nigerian ports and NIMASA’s public messaging on the issue.
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