Company Magazine for the Odfjell Group - March 2005

Into Africa
Multitank Britannia calls Koko, Nigeria
By Captain Stoil Dimov, Master of Multitank Britannia, at sea December 26th 2004
Just before Christmas, Multitank
Britannia called Koko in the western
Niger River Delta, to discharge a cargo
of lubricating oil. Nigeria is a vast country
with more than 260 tribes and a
mixture of languages and religions.
The Niger Delta State where Koko is
located has oil resources, lush vegetation
and numerous rivers and creeks.
The livelihood of locals, however, is
generally in a rather poor state, and
the area suffers from piracy, insurgencies
and frequent disturbances to oil
production and distribution. We were
well prepared for the journey, our
stores were well stocked, and all
medicines were checked to ensure we
adhered to the national regulations.
The passage from the Escravos river
entrance to Koko is
about 60 Nm, and the
waters at the entrance to
Escravos and when entering
Nana Creek are very
shallow and difficult. Our
pilot Mr. Bay Tobi, or
code name Bravo Tango,
was a very polite and
knowledgeable man, an
excellent choice by our agent. The upriver
passage took six hours due to the
speed restrictions in the shallows. There
are plenty of small villages around the
river and the creek, and when the locals
spot vessels approaching they jump in
their canoes hoping for whatever gifts
from the crews. The pilot told us that
because of pollution there is very little
fish in the river system.
At Koko, more than thirty officials from
the health authorities, customs, federal
security, port security, army, navy,
shippers’ representatives and ship
chandlers (who turned out to be a local
community representative as well)
came on board. This took a considerable
time to deal with, but finally we
got all necessary clearances. The night
Steaming up the Benin River
14 ODFJELL Quarterly March 2005