By Chinelo Obogo
Scarcity of forex, airport taxes, others have been blamed for the skyrocketing price of jet A1 fuel.
General Manager, Total Energies Nigeria, Rabiu Abdulmutalib, said this at a conference organised by aviation correspondents in Lagos.
He said that unless the challenges are resolved, the prices of fuel products would continue to rise and in turn affect the price of air tickets.
A litre of aviation fuel in the domestic scene goes as high as N305 and N315 per litre, depending on the airport an airline is buying from.
According to him, the inability of local refineries to refine the product locally, high investment in logistics and high cost of aviation fuel handling equipment like refuellers, hydrant dispenser/servicers and filtration systems are also contributed to the sordid situation in the local market.
Abdulmutalib canvassed for proper coordination among relevant government agencies in monitoring and enforcement of all standards along the supply chain.
Some of the agencies he mentioned included 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, he that organisations 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.
He also appealled for government intervention for easy access to forex, especially aviation fuel importers and national sensitisation and awareness on monitor filtration phase out from all aviation handling systems in Nigeria before the deadline of July 2023.