Joiners and leavers
Maingate Shipping arranges crew changes at Onne for owners, managers and crewing agencies: immigration formalities, airport meet and transfer through Port Harcourt International Airport, launches where the vessel lies at anchor, and hotels when flights and vessels do not line up. Our partner agent at the port attends the movement under Maingate's instruction; the Mombasa desk plans and reports.
Seafarers join and leave at Onne through Port Harcourt International Airport, and the movement is routine when the file is right. Maingate Shipping handles the immigration formalities, the airport, the transfer to the gangway and the hotel if the timings do not meet, and reports every movement to the owner with times and costs.
Onne is the Bonny River in the Niger Delta, inside the oil and gas free zone, and offshore supply vessels and rig-related traffic dominate, security escorts on the river approach are routine, and urea exports bring bulk carriers to the terminal; the crew plan is built with that in mind, so that a launch is not booked into a swell or a flight into a berth window that will not hold.
Crewing agencies, technical managers and owners under charter all place crew movements here; the desk acts for whoever instructs it and keeps that party's account separate.
Movements at Onne run through Port Harcourt International Airport. Joiners are met at the aircraft door where the airport allows it and at arrivals where it does not, and are through immigration and on the road without delay when the file was filed in advance. Leavers go the other way with their sign-off papers in hand.
Flight bookings track the vessel, not the other way round: options are held and changed as the ETA firms up, and the owner is told the cost of each change.
Every nationality on the crew list is checked against the current rules at Onne before a ticket is bought: who gets a visa on arrival, who needs one in advance, who transits on the agent's letter of guarantee alone. The crew list, passports and seaman's books are sent to immigration with the letter of guarantee ahead of the movement.
Shore passes are arranged for crew going ashore, and the boarding officer carries the port passes the movement needs.
The last mile at Onne is the gangway or the launch. Alongside, the boarding officer walks the crew through the gate. At anchor, the launch goes out in daylight with the joiners and comes back with the leavers, and the desk confirms the ladder, the lee side and the timing with the master before it sails.
Off-port-limits crew changes for vessels in transit are done outside the port, with the vessel slowing to take the launch alongside and resuming passage within a couple of hours. Hotels near the port are used when flights land after the last launch.
A seafarer landed sick at Onne is taken to hospital by the desk's representative, admitted against the owner's or the club's guarantee, and reported on daily until discharged or repatriated with a fit-to-fly certificate and, where required, a medical escort. The replacement is arranged from the Kenyan pool while the case runs.
Times, names and costs go to the owner promptly; receipts follow with the account.
Who changes crew at Onne: offshore supply vessels, bulk carriers, container ships, heavy lift vessels and tankers, in the trades of oil and gas equipment, offshore supplies, urea and fertilizer exports, containers and general cargo. Their rotations differ, so the desk asks the manager for the rotation calendar and works from it, rather than treating every movement as a surprise.
Berth or anchorage decides the last mile; Onne's working areas are the federal ocean terminal, the federal lighter terminal and the offshore logistics bases.
The crew list marked with joiners and leavers, valid passports, seaman's books or seafarer identity documents, the agent's letter of guarantee and, for some nationalities, a visa obtained in advance or pre-notified for arrival.
Yes, by launch in daylight when the sea state allows.
Through Port Harcourt International Airport, with the desk meeting joiners on arrival and seeing leavers through immigration and check-in.
The desk books a hotel near the port, keeps the crew informed, and moves them to the vessel as soon as she is alongside or at anchor.
One instruction, one account, one contact for the master and one for the principal.
Crew work sits with port agency and crew management on the same desk.
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Maingate Shipping Limited · Express Building, Moi Avenue, Mombasa, Kenya · ops@maingateshipping.com · +254 784 622 091