Aviation crisis lingers as airlines, marketers fail to agree on Jet fuel price

Airline operators and fuel marketers are yet to agree on a new pricing framework for aviation fuel known as Jet A1, Daily Trust can report.

Both parties have been meeting since Tuesday at the instance of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

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This followed the intervention of the House of Representatives which summoned stakeholders over the scarcity and skyrocketing price of Jet A1 which has disrupted flight operations.

At the meeting with the House of Representatives on Monday, it was agreed that aviation fuel would be sold at N500 per litre as against the over N600 sold in some parts of the country while airline operators would also be licensed to import ATK (Aviation Turbine Kerosene).

However, a follow-up meeting coordinated by the Executive Director, Distribution Systems, Storage & Retailing Infrastructure of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Mr Ogbugo Ukoha, and Group Executive Director, Downstream of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Adeyemi Adetunji, failed to agree on the new pricing template.

Both parties were later asked to nominate representatives that would work overnight with the NNPC representatives to come up with a new pricing framework.

The team has been meeting since then but they have not been able to agree on a new pricing template while aviation fuel price has not changed.

Daily Trust learnt that arguments and counter-arguments have stalled any reasonable compromise.

Managing Director of Aero Contractors, Capt. Abdullahi Mahmood, in a chat last night said both parties have not agreed on the new price.

He said, “It is a work in progress; we have not come to a conclusion, we are yet to finalise everything. We are still working on it. They (fuel marketers) made a template, but we have not finalized on it. The meeting is continuing tomorrow.

“We don’t know when the meeting will come to an end. It’s like back and forth. Both parties are still dragging it. So, you cannot say this is when the meeting will come to an end. Hopefully, we are going to get something out of it. We are getting the green light from it. We have to get something from it. If we don’t get something out of it, the government will have to intervene.”

Another fuel marketer also told our correspondent that they are still discussing proposals which will be concluded soon.