NNPC Seals Deal With Oil Marketers To Resolve Aviation Fuel Crisis In Three Days

The Federal House of Representatives and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd on Monday brokered an interim agreement between Oil marketers and Airline Operators to resolve the current aviation fuel crisis in the country.

This was the highpoint of an investigative hearing into the price hike of aviation fuel by oil marketers, held at the instance of the House of Representatives.

The hearing was attended by the leadership of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria and other stakeholders in the aviation industry.

Local airlines in Nigeria had said they have only three days from today to shut down operations over lack of aviation fuel.

At the moment, the airlines are buying the fuel at N670 from normal price of N190 recently.
But at the meeting, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari said that the oil marketers have agreed on an interim arrangement that will enable them to fix the price of aviation fuel at N500 per litre for the next three days as against N670 per litre.

He said currently, there were 19 oil companies with 88 million litres of aviation fuel in the country and assured Nigerians that the NNPC is working with stakeholders in the aviation sector to address the issue of the pricing of aviation fuel.

He said, “We know this is a very difficult situation. We know that once aviation fuel increases, prices of flight tickets will certainly increase and this can surely cost pain for Nigerians.

“That is why we are working with you to ensure that those pains are minimized to the barest minimum and one of the elements is the pricing of aviation fuel.

“So, what we have engaged with MOMAN, DAPMAN and the airline operators is that in three days’ time, their representatives will sit down and agree on a transparent base for pricing.

“That means that they ought to have a referenced benchmark that is quoted transparently in the market.

“They will have a referenced exchange rate for the Naira so that anyone can compete. They will also agree on a premium which currently differs from customer to customer, depending on the volume you buy and the credit level.

“These are the things they can negotiate in three days and close so that going forward, there is a transparent decision on pricing.

“This will no doubt throw up the actual value of the product in the market. You will no longer see these discrepancies we have seen where some people are selling at N445 and some are selling at N630. This will completely bring close such that you will not see these differences.”

He added, “We also agreed that in the interim, between now and the three days that have to close negotiations. The lowest price we have seen as of this morning was N445 and a high of N605.

“There is a trader that is selling at N630 and we don’t think this is normal and so, we discounted it. We agreed that they will sell at N500 in the next three days and after that, they will switch to the new price that everyone can assess.”