Oil marketers under the aegis of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has denied reports that Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK), otherwise known as aviation fuel, was being sold at N700 per litre in some parts of the country.
According to NAN, this was made known on Monday in Lagos by the Executive Secretary of MOMAN, Clement Isong, during an interview where he said that aviation fuel is sold by marketers at the rate of between N540 and N550 per litre at the tarmac at Lagos airports and N570 to N580 per litre at the farthest airport from Lagos.
Isong denied knowledge of Aviation fuel selling at N700 per litre anywhere across the country and acknowledged that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has intervened with the importation of the product.
What the MOMAN Executive Secretary is saying
Isong said, “I am not aware that aviation fuel is sold currently anywhere at N700 per litre. There has been an intervention by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd., which is now bringing in ATK.
“It gets into tank, all costs together, at about N500 per litre. If we use Ikeja (Murtala Mohammed Airport, local as a benchmark, it is sold there by marketers between N540 and N550 per litre.
“Nobody with common sense will go and bring in ATK now that NNPC is bringing in product and selling it cheap.
“NNPC is bringing in the product because it is swapping it with crude and when it swaps it with crude it uses the Central Bank of Nigeria exchange rate of N419 to a dollar.
“Meanwhile the product is deregulated. So no normal person can go and get it at that exchange rate. You cannot use N589 (black market rate) to a dollar to bring in the product and sell at N550 per litre.”
He said that the intervention by the NNPC has discouraged marketers from importing aviation fuel because it will be a bad business decision, adding that investigation shows that the product is cheaper in Nigeria compared to other West African countries.
Isong said, “ATK as a product is handled very carefully. It is continuously filtered. It is carried by special trucks, so there are extra handling costs.
“Even with these costs, it is sold at the tarmac between N540 and N550 per litre in Lagos and by the time you carry it all over the country including transportation cost, it will be sold at about N570 or N580 at the farthest airport from Lagos.
“There is nowhere aviation fuel is sold at N700 per litre.
“In Ghana, aviation fuel is sold at Platt, North-Western Europe, plus premium or minus at 1.25 dollars per litre.
“In Liberia and Sierra Leone, it is selling at 5.70 dollars per gallon, which translates to 1.51 dollars per litre. So, those are your West African prices.
“Now, if you want to translate that to Naira, if you are using the NNPC price which is N540, that is cheaper and even if you use the N700 they are claiming, it is still cheaper.
“We are not selling it at N700 per litre because of the NNPC intervention. It is actually about 90 cents per litre with the NNPC price.”
What you should know
- Recall that on Friday evening, May 6, Air Peace, Ibom Air, Max Air, Arik Air, United Nigeria Airlines and 4 other airlines under the aegis of Airline Operators of Nigeria announced plans to shut down operations with effect from Monday, May 9, 2022, saying that the cost of the aviation fuel has increased from N190 per litre to N700 per litre.
- The strike was, however, called off following appeals by the Federal Government and other stakeholders in the aviation sector.
- The domestic airline operators had earlier in March notified the passengers of expected flight delays and cancellations as a result of the hike in aviation fuel, a development which impacted heavily on their operations.
- The plan was shelved following the intervention of the federal government and the NNPC, as all parties in their discussion agreed to the granting of licenses for the importation of aviation fuel which is needed for their operations.
