Ruptured fuel pipelines to Lagos airport since 1992 worry stakeholders

*FAAN rakes in N7.5 million daily from JET A1 tax, scarcity ends

*3 million litre fuel consumed daily

         Except the Federal Government urgently repair the broken down pipelines linking the Atlas Cove to the airports, particularly the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, aviation fuel crisis would continue to persist. The pipelines ruptured in 1992 and since then, aviation fuel, otherwise known as Jet A1 is brought to the airports in tankers that in most cases have reduces the quality of the product

Consequently, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and airlines operators have been warned to be concerned about this development in fuel importation that could have serious consequence on flight safety.

There had been reported cases in the recent past that some marketers were selling kerosene as jet-A1 to airlines. These were marketers who were importing kerosene and collecting subsidies on it from the government and yet were selling it as jet-A1.

A source with a leading oil marketing firm who spoke to woleshadare.com on condition of anonymity attributed the recent aviation fuel scarcity that disrupted flight operations for three days was equally to the fact that there is only one discharge point where trucks take turn to load the commodity, adding that priority was given to load Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) to ease scarcity that pervaded the land.

The Managing Director of First Nation Airways, Mr. Kayode Odukoya disclosed that the pressure to lift Jet A1 from the Atlas Cove, occasioned by lack of infrastructure led to the three day scarcity that disrupted flight operation, adding that the situation has normalized with flights departing on schedule.

Odukoya stated that the situation would occur every other month except there are better ways of distribution of aviation fuels to airports in the country.

His words, “There is only one discharging point at Atlas Cove to discharge aviation fuel. The hydrant pipes from Atlas Cove have not worked for 20 years. Can you imagine trucking Jet A1 to an airport like Johannesburg? The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) needs to work on infrastructure at the airports.”

The FAAN rakes in N7.5 million daily on taxes on fuel three million litres of fuel used by both domestic and international airlines. The breakdown shows that two million litres of Jet A1 are consumed daily by domestic airline operators while one million litres are consumed by international airlines.

For every one litre of fuel discharge into an aircraft, FAAN charges oil marketers N2.50K; a situation that has also led to the high cost of the commodity which ranges from between N110 and N125 per litre depending on the marketer. Aviation fuel had since been deregulated as the price varies from one marketer to the other.

A former Assistant Secretary General of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Mohammed Tukur said aside the charges on Jet A1, oil marketers pay ground charges for storage of Jet A1 at the Joint Users Hydrant Installations (JUHI) which he said is also astronomical.

He said the situation is capable of pushing up further the price of aviation fuel as oil marketers complained of so many charges they are billed by FAAN.

Aviation security expert, Group Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd) has charged NCAA to draw up standards for Jet-A1 quality assurance, starting with the transportation vehicles type or profile; supply and trucking systems; storage and dispensing systems.

He stated that at the moment, vehicles supplying aviation fuel, otherwise known as Jet-A1 are not sufficiently distinct from those supplying other petroleum products.

Ojikutu disclosed that the consequence of all these development could result in fuel contamination as some of the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Reports of some aircraft accidents have shown.

His words, “Up till about 1992, Jet-A1 supply to Murtala Muhammed Airport, was through pipelines from Ejigbo or the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depot. The supply from the MMA depot to the hydrants on the apron where fuel is dispensed to aircraft, were done also through the pipelines. The method then was quality assurance in practice.”

He however regretted that unfortunately, since the pipelines got ruptured in 1992, nobody in NNPC, NCAA, FAAN and even the airlines-the end users, raised serious concern on why there had been no repairs of the pipelines in 24 years.

The former commandant, Murtala Muhammed Airport, stated that the neglect of the repair of the pipelines is a major reason for the high cost of Jet-A1 and invariably the airlines operating cost if the costs of transportation and demurrage on the tankers are considered.

He explained that these costs are huge and are substantial earnings for the owners of the tankers used for bridging the fuel supply between the NNPC depot and the airport depot, stressing that the tanker owners are those who would not want to see the pipelines repaired.

Wole Shadare