The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has revealed that the nation’s refineries will soon start producing JET A1, better known as aviation fuel.
The scarcity of aviation fuel has been affecting smooth operations in the aviation industry, forcing some airlines to purchase JET A1 fuel from neighbouring countries at an added cost.
But speaking when he met with his counterpart in the Transport ministry, Hadi Sirika, Kachikwu said that although the refineries are not producing aviation fuel for now, efforts will be made in due course to provide the enablers that would ensure local production in the near future.
A statement issued by the Group General Manager of NNPC’s Public Affairs Division, Garba Deen Muhammad, reports that Kachikwu received the minister of state for aviation and his team of directors at the NNPC Towers on Tuesday.
The statement noted that Sirika and Kachikwu have pledged to work together to eliminate the noticeable challenge faced by airline operators in accessing aviation fuel for their daily operations.
Kachikwu said that the supply and distribution of JET A1 is out of government control because it has since been deregulated. But he added that a meeting of importers of aviation fuel would soon be convened to address all challenges impeding the seamless supply of the product.
The NNPC boss maintained that the corporation would look into the import and sale of aviation fuel to understand and tackle the problem.
“The immediate action point for now is to meet with all the importers of aviation fuel; we want to understand the consumption pattern and also look at their cost to ensure that they are not profiteering excessively,” he said.
On his part, Sirika pointed out that the need to ensure availability of JET A1 fuel has become imperative, seeing that the product accounts for about 45 percent of the total cost of operation.
