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Senate, marketers trade tackles over aviation fuel scarcity

By Wole Oyebade
22 November 2016   |   4:28 am
Managing Director of FAAN, Saleh Dunoma, said it was shocking to find the price of aviation fuel jump to about N240 per litre (from N105 about a year ago), while other countries were reducing cost due to fall in global crude oil price.
Engineer Saleh Dunoma, Managing Director, Federal Airport Authourity of Nigeria

Engineer Saleh Dunoma, Managing Director, Federal Airport Authourity of Nigeria

• House meets NCAA, FAAN, NAMA over state of the sector

The Senate House Committee on Aviation yesterday criticised oil marketers, describing them as the cartel behind recurrent fuel shortage in the industry.

The committee, at an emergency meeting in Lagos with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), said time had come to unbundle the cartel and free the air travel sector from “imminent collapse”.

Aviation fuel, otherwise called Jet-A1, accounts for about 40 per cent of airlines’ operational cost and has often been in short supply, causing reduction in domestic airlines operations by 50 per cent.

Senators Bala Na’allah and Jeremiah Oseni said the sector was in “trouble” and required collective, urgent and frank actions, to give it headway.

Na’allah, a licensed captain, said he had been in the sector for so long and therefore understood how collective self-denial of existing problems had brought aviation to its current straits. One of the problems was perennial fuel scarcity, he said, and “we have to sit down and frankly too, to give it a solution.”

According to him, “We have fuel scarcity because of the cartel behind its supply. If you call them, they will say it is the Niger Delta problem. But there is fighting in South Sudan and we can still buy their fuel. They told you what people are going through in Abuja now. But heartlessly, it doesn’t bother them, as long as they are making money.

“This committee will look at this issue soon and be decisive on the matter. If anyone doesn’t want to supply fuel to Nigeria, let him go. We will unbundle the cartel. They will always have an excuse to give. If it isn’t fighting in the Niger Delta, it is fall in the naira. But this time, we will look into it.”

It will be recalled that airlines operators, last week, raised the alarm over another imminent fuel scarcity, as marketers claimed they had run out of supply. The shortage, it was gathered, affected flight operations in Abuja at the weekend. There were hours of delay, as operators jostled for the scarce commodity.

Executive Secretary of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Obafemi Olawole, said the shortage was due to the late arrival of fuel-laden ships in Lagos.

Na’allah’s colleague at the Senate, Rilwan Adesoji (Oyo South), agreed on the importance of Jet-A1 to the sector, adding it should be given priority, since it was tied to revenue accruable to the airlines and regulators.

Managing Director of FAAN, Saleh Dunoma, said it was shocking to find the price of aviation fuel jump to about N240 per litre (from N105 about a year ago), while other countries were reducing cost due to fall in global crude oil price.

Dunoma, however, said the problem would be resolved, especially with ongoing repairs at Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries dedicated to the production of aviation fuel for local consumption.

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