Scarcity: FG To Dedicate Kaduna Refinery To Aviation Fuel

• Airlines, Marketers To Save N35b Yearly

The perennial aviation fuel scarcity being experienced in the country could soon become a thing of the past, as the Federal Government is at the verge of dedicating the Kaduna refinery to refining just Jet A1.

This was confirmed by Director, Flight Operations, First- Nation Airways, Capt Chimara Imediegwu while speaking with Woleshadare.net in Lagos.

In the run up to this month, domestic airlines in Africa’s largest economy have grappled with shortages of Jet A1, also known as aviation fuel, as dollar supplies fall way short of demand.

Airlines in Nigeria have a daily demand of about two million litres of aviation fuel. Consequently, refining the fuel locally could equate to saving as much as $155.75 million (N35 billion), incurred on the back of importation.

He stated that the problem associated with scarcity of aviation fuel would soon be a thing of the past when government finalises work on Kaduna refinery that would be dedicated solely to the refining of aviation fuel.

The airline chief disclosed that the refining of the commodity in Nigeria would help to bring down the rising cost of aviation fuel. Government has not made the importation of aviation fuel its focus and it has left it solely to marketers who are now having challenges with sourcing forex to meet the demand for the product. Many of the marketers are having challenges with foreign exchange.

Aviation fuel, which sold for N105 in March, now sells for N200 in Lagos and N240 outside Lagos while in Ghana, the same product sells between N130 and N150. Because of this huge price difference, as well as the scarcity in Nigeria, there is the fear that airlines may take advantage of that to buy their commodity in Accra. Nigeria imports Jet A1.

But, given the collapse in the value of the naira in recent months and given the scarcity of foreign currency, importers have struggled to source enough products to meet local demand. Executive Secretary of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Obafemi Olawole, said marketers are finding it difficult to source for forex at the stipulated current rate of N285 to a dollar

. Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, had recently told Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) that deliberations had begun with the Ministry of Petroleum to commit one of the three refineries in the country to Jet A1 refining. Sirika disclosed that in his meeting with Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum, the latter said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would revert one of the refineries on track before the end of the year to begin to refine Jet A1.

The minister said with new investments in Kaduna refinery, they would get the refinery back on stream, so that the more they refine, the more the fuel would be available. “The essence of refining it locally is not only to make it available, but to also make it cheaper because the element of importation would be removed,” Sirika said.

Wole Shadare