By John Ikani
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and Nigeria’s National Assembly have brokered an interim agreement between Oil marketers and Airline operators to allow the latter to import cheaper aviation fuel.
The agreement was in response to crisis between Oil marketers and airline operators over the biting scarcity of aviation fuel and subsequent increase in price of the product, a development which made the airlines threaten to shut down their operations in three days if there is no reduction in the price of the fuel also known as Jet-A1.
“They will be granted a license to import petroleum products,” Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. Managing Director Mele Kyari was quoted on Tuesday as telling lawmakers in a post on the company’s Twitter account.
The permits will enable the airlines to “bring in cheaper products whenever it is possible,” he said at the latter part of the video.
https://twitter.com/NNPCgroup/status/1503462337042427907
Away from the scarcity of aviation fuel, the West African nation has had Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol shortages since the beginning of February, after the authorities rejected a batch of imported gasoline that contained too much methanol, making it unsuitable for domestic usage.
See full text of Kyari’s statement below:
“In 3 days, representatives from MOMAM, DAPPMA and the Airline Operators of Nigeria will sit down and agree on a transparent basis of pricing.
“It means that they have to have a reference benchmark that is quoted directly and transparently in the market, also a reference template for the naira so that anyone can compete and also engage and agree on a premium, which differs from customer to customer depending on the volume of the products you buy, and then the credit limit customers are ready to take.
“These are things that would be negotiated in 3 days so that they can close and have a transparent basis of pricing.
“we won’t see huge discrepancies in the market where some people are selling ” above 450 and some selling at 630, this will completely bring into closure that consumers will not see such prices.
“Secondly, we agreed that in the interim between now and 3 days where they will close the basis of prices, the lowest we have seen as at this morning is N445 and another high of 605, some traders are selling at 630, we don’t think it’s normal and it has been discounted, without any logic around it, let me emphasize, they will sell for the next 3 days at N500 to a litre and on day 3, there will switch to new formula that everyone can accept and compute.
“Lastly, as requested by the airline operators of Nigeria, there would be granted license by authorities to import petroleum products, so that they can have a way of benchmarking the products from other customers and also bring in cheaper products whenever possible.”
