Fuelling equipment in aviation is cost intensive, an average refueller for instance cost as much as N150 million, airport taxes, cost of importation, continuous importation, lack of foreign exchange are some of the challenges fuel marketers grapple with in the industry so says, a fuel marketer/suppler.
Due to these, the price of a litre of aviation fuel has continued to skyrocket in the country.
A litre of aviation fuel depending on the airport is N305 and N315.
In a presentation at the just concluded conference of Aviation journalists in Lagos, the General Manager, TotalEnergies, Engr. Rabiu Abdulmutalib says, the price of the product is high because of high investment in logistics, non-refining of the product locally.
“For you to move a product from Lagos-Kano you pay almost N23 per litre so, you can imagine what that would mean to airlines and off course the airport taxes, high cost of aviation fueling equipment like refuellers, average size refuellers almost N150m so, these are all cost intensive devices for the aviation”.
While appealing for government intervention on easy access to forex especially for aviation fuel importers, he called for proper coordination among relevant government agencies in monitoring and enforcement of all standards along the supply chain to address these issues.
Some of these agencies are the Department of Petroleum Resources, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), amongst others.
To avoid contamination of the product, Abdulmutalib opined that organisaitons should not compromise any of the established international and local regulations on handling JET A1 from refinery to aircraft, adherence to international specification checklist for aviation fuel recognised by major aviation fuel suppliers in the world and checking competencies and capacities of laboratories contracted for testing parameters of the product in the country.
“There should be no compromise on any established international and local regulations on handling Jet A1 from the refinery to the aircraft”.
