By Aaron Ossai and Disun Amosun
As part of efforts to ensure that Airline operators in the country remain in business, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited has agreed he should immediately commence application for License to import Aviation Fuel also called Jet A1 or APK for their members’ consumption.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila who disclosed this at a meeting between critical stakeholders in the aviation industry and leadership of the House said the decision was to ensure steady and affordable supply of the product that will eliminate constant threat of distribution to flight operations.
It would be recalled that the Airline Operator of Nigeria, AON had threatened to shut down operation due to high cost of the aviation which they claimed was as high as N700 per litre.
Reading out resolutions reached after the meeting, the Speaker said for a short-term solution, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company NNPC Ltd and the Airlines Operators of Nigeria AON agreed that for the next three months sufficient aviation fuel would be made available to operators through marketers recommended by the operators at concessionary price to steady flights operation in the country.
Gbajabiamila described the Aviation Sector as too critical to the national economy to be left open to the whims and caprices of aviation fuel marketers, adding that the AON must be willing to take its destiny on its hand.
He tasked the Nigerian Midstream/Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency, NMDPRA to try as much as possible to grant waivers, where possible in the execution of the reached agreements that will not touch on state security.
Other spin-offs of the resolution include the immediate release of the 25,000 metric tons of APK granted by Presidential orders to AON by the NNPC as part of measures to ensure smooth operation of flights in the country.
Similarly, the meeting agreed that the six million litres of Aviation Fuel available at the NNPC depot should be made available to the AON at the landing cost of N460 per litre all in efforts to save the Aviation sector from collapse.
