Monrovia – At a Senate Public Hearing Thursday, February 6, Mr. Bill Twehway, Managing Director of the National Port Authority (NPA), told Senators that since October 2019, bigger vessels stopped berthing at the Freeport of Monrovia because of high degree of siltation.
The NPA’s MD’s appearance before the Senate is in addition to other appearances in connection with the shortage of gasoline on the Liberian market.
Few days ago, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Prof. Wilson Tarpeh, had blamed the lack of dredging of the Freeport for a few years that had made large vessels from berthing at the port for fear of being stuck while attempting to dock.
Speaking further to senators, Mr. Twehway said that despite the situation, ships have been berthing and products have been coming to the country. According to him, the port dredging is five years behind time. He disclosed that the last time the port was dredged was in 2012.
“There is a perception out there that there is a shortage of petroleum on the market because larger vessels called in and they were denied entry because the channel is narrow. Members of the Senate, I want to inform you the dredging of the port should have been done August, last year,” the NPA MD said.
According to him, it was agreed with other authorities of the port that to dredge the port at a time the tides were high or at the time it was raining, was not a good idea. He further stated that had they done so at that time, they wouldn’t have reached the actual depth needed.
Mr. Twehway said they had informed tanker owners sending their ships to Liberia.
“In October, we sent out a safety memo informing them about what kind of shipping line could berth at the Freeport of Monrovia. That was a full warning to tell them that our channels were getting narrower and there were certain ships that could berth at the port.
“There is a perception out there that there is a shortage of petroleum on the market because larger vessels called in and they were denied entry because the channel is narrow. Members of the Senate, I want to inform you the dredging of the port should have been done August, last year.”
– Bill Tweway, Managing Director, National Port Authority
“Since October vessels have been coming and products have been coming. Days before the alarming shortage, a vessel brought products. So, we are in line with what we told the Liberian people what we said we will do. We have started the dredging of the port and in the matters of days and few weeks, not less three and not more than five, our entry channel will be about 13.5 meters and bigger vessels will be berthing,” he assured.
Also addressing the Senate, Commerce Minister Wilson Tarpeh stated that the shortage of gasoline on the market started as far back in 2008. According to him, what currently happening is a ‘blessing in disguise’ because no large vessel has gotten stuck in the entry of the port and the problem is being solved now. According to him, it would have been the Government of Liberia’s responsibility to fix that ship.
The Commerce Minister again assured the lawmakers that the quantity of gasoline in stock is enough to serve the public until the next consignment arrives.
When news of the shortage broke out weeks ago, Prof. Tarpeh had stated that there was enough gasoline in storage to serve the nation for more than 25 days. However, addressing the Senate on Thursday, he said, information given earlier about the availability of petroleum products was based on statistic given him from the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company (LPRC).
“In the case of LPRC, we do not go dipping the tanks; we rely of information given by the LPRC. We are still reconciling the figures and until then we cannot pass judgment.”
Also speaking, Madam Marie Urey Coleman, MD of the LPRC, informed senators that petroleum product is just in the hands of two service providers, SP and Total. According to her, both petroleum importers informed them that they brought in products but because the ships were not able to berth, they had to redirect them to Guinea.
According to her, Total Liberia still has sufficient products in stock and is giving out products to other vendors to make sure that products were in the hands of stations.
“I want to also inform you that once we had the information on the limitation of products we did take the necessary precaution.
“They assured us once the vessels are being offloaded and we have lighter vessels coming the product will come back.
“We have enough product for the month; it is in the hands of Total Liberia. We are tracking a vessel with huge shipment of 20,000 metric tons. It will arrive in the country long before we are in crisis. We are basing our surety on the tracking mechanism we are using,” she stated.