Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Petrol tanker movement in and out of Banjul Port.

In an earlier blog, we reported that there is currently a vessel at the Banjul Port ready for discharge of much needed fuel for The Gambia - a commodity that is currently in short supply.

We also reported that the supplier is demanding foreign exchange, the international currency of transaction, from the importer, Gam-Petroleum, which is the monopoly created by Yaya Jammeh and his Lebanese and Hezbollah affiliates.

The initial blog report triggered swift response from the blog's followers with deep knowledge of the petroleum industry and maritime-related issues and based in Europe who provided us with the official vessel movements.

Based on this valuable piece of information, it appears that there is no petroleum-carrying vessel at the Banjul Port.  At least there's no tanker that fits the description or name of vessel listed on the schedule of movements of vessels in and around Banjul Port.

Vessel : "Lubersac" IMO: 9515981, is the next vessel scheduled to arrive at the Banjul Port on Sunday, 23 March at 12:00.  

Vessel: "Cielo di Milano" IMO: 9241815 is a chemical tanker with current position in Dover Strait.

The last tanker to call at the Banjul Port was vessel:  "Conti Benguela"  IMO: 9391373 which is a combined chemical and oil tanker that arrived February 25 and sailed February 26.

It is still conceivable that another vessel may have changed course and was diverted to Banjul.  But we are told that this scenario is highly unlikely since such changes in movements are reflected, almost instantaneously, in schedule of movement of vessels. as we one reported here.

We leave the rest to our readers, especially those in Banjul who are intimately involved in petroleum business and/or in the retailing of petroleum products.

The situation clearly is dire and the blame rests entirely on the shoulders of Yaya Jammeh and his incompetent and corrupt regime.