Piracy worries stifle west Africa bitumen cargo trade

Heightened concerns over piracy in west African waters, especially in the Gulf of Guinea, are posing a major obstacle for those seeking to import bitumen cargoes on the spot market.

Road construction activity during the current dry season has reached significant levels in some key bitumen-consuming countries in west Africa, notably Nigeria and Ghana. At the same time, west African bitumen supply has been hard hit by a two-month maintenance shutdown at Ivory Coast's bitumen-producing refinery in Abidjan. These twin factors have led to increased demand for bitumen imports this month, a trend that is set to persist throughout February.

But while international trading and supply firms such as Puma Energy, Vitol and Rubis are using their own tankers to deliver cargoes to their own terminals in the region, piracy attacks, delays and demurrage costs are strongly discouraging additional spot cargo movements.

Winter is a period of low bitumen demand in Europe, which means surplus volumes are available for export. But Mediterranean traders, ship brokers and shipowners alike say the key constraint to concluding deals to export spot cargoes to west African ports, especially in Nigeria, is heightened risks to shipping. Security firm Dryad has called on shipowners to increase vigilance in the Gulf of Guinea where piracy attacks — mainly on container ships but also on tankers and dry bulk vessels — are becoming more frequent. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) recently advised all vessels to stay at least 250 nautical miles from the coast in this region, noting that the Gulf of Guinea accounted for more than 95pc of maritime kidnappings globally last year.

There have been no recent reports of bitumen tankers being targeted, but a Mediterranean shipping firm, which has bitumen vessels in its fleet, had one of its oil product tankers hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea last April. Bitumen vessels are a less valuable target for pirates than tankers carrying crude, gasoline or diesel, but the small size of most specialised bitumen tankers — averaging around 5,000 deadweight tonnes — makes them relatively easy to board.

Prompt demand for a 3,500t bitumen cargo into the Koko terminal in Nigeria's Delta State has generated some interest from European traders and brokers, although few think the requirement can be met in current circumstances. One shipowner suggested that it could take a doubling of freight rates — currently assessed at $100-115/t for 5,000t cargo shipments from Tarragona in Spain to Nigerian import terminals — to tempt shipowners to agree to such a booking.

By Keyvan Hedvat