Port under fire as oil rig sidelines container vessels

MEDITERRANEAN Shipping Company last week fired off an angry complaint to the National Ports Authority in Cape Town over unadvised delays to its own and other vessels while the entire complement of tugs attended to berthing an oil rig. Cape Town port manager Sanjay Govan has however firmly refused any specialised treatment for container shipping lines. “We sit with a very difficult situation,” said Govan, “given that we cannot prioritise container vessels as the port has a wide range of users and we have to look after all of them. “We cannot give one priority over the other unless, of course, the container liners are prepared to pay us something extra.” This extraordinary explanation will no doubt be received with shock by the container shipping lines on which the port is dependent for a large part of its revenue. The contribution from oil and gas industry vessels is considerably less. The background to this unhappy state of affairs is that container lines were advised in writing on Friday, February 29, to expect delays on Saturday due to marine services berthing the huge oil rig, Pride South Seas. This did not occur on account of unfavourable weather and the operation was postponed for 24 hours, without the advance knowledge of the lines. It only became known early on Sunday that all four tugs were attending to the Pride South Seas – an operation that took around eight hours and left departing and incoming vessels high and dry. An MSC official, who declined to be named, said a strong letter of objection had been lodged with Transnet Port Terminals for onward submission to the NPA. A response is still awaited. “To our way of thinking, for an oil rig to take precedence over fullyladen container vessels is a disgusting state of affairs. “Our two delays have a knock-on effect on all other containerships. The Cape Town berthing delay is between 2 4 hours and 30 hours at present, which is uncalled for.” Mike Powles, acting planning manager at the Mother City container terminal, says: “How much does the NPA get for berthing a rig? “Customers are up in arms and they have put the port on notice because the NPA never explained what they would do to cater for the remainder of the users in the absence of the four tugs, so why could they not bring tugs from Saldanha?” ● Cape Town harbour master Captain Ravi Naicker concedes no second advisory was sent to container shipping lines about a laterthan- anticipated berthing of an oil rig, but suggests it was incumbent on them to check the state of affairs. Agreeing that containerised traffic was “without a doubt” very important to the financial well-being of the port of Cape Town, Naicker said: “We do prioritise container ships and are now also using Quays 501 and 502 and Quay 700 for containerships so we are doing something.”