Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika has revealed how the
Federal Government will tackle the aviation fuel crisis in the country.
Sirika said the persisting scarcity and high cost of
aviation fuel, also known as JET A1, will come under control when the repair of
Port Harcourt Refinery is completed, or Dangote Refinery commences operations.
He stated this yesterday while responding to questions from
State House Correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, reiterating that
the aviation fuel crisis is not peculiar to Nigeria.
Sirika, who took the Secretary-General of International
Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Juan Carlos Salazar, and his team to see
President Muhammadu Buhari at the Villa, blamed the scarcity and high cost on
the volatility of the international petroleum market and the ongoing war
between Russia and Ukraine.
Recall that in the last few weeks, domestic airlines had
complained about the spike in the price of aviation fuel and had threatened to
withdraw their services.
On plans to address the scarcity, Sirika said: “We explained
that the scarcity and high cost of Jet A1 in civil aviation is not peculiar to
Nigeria.
“It is a global phenomenon driven by many factors. Some of
them include even low capacity to refine the product.
“It’s also in high demand around the world, it has increased
activity and increased the number of aeroplanes out there and users of this jet
A1. Plus also the Ukraine crisis and many more. It’s a time when crude itself
is so expensive.
“Once Dangote Refinery is online or if the government fixes
Port Harcourt Refinery, we will begin to refine this product and sell it.
“As a stopgap measure, there’s an agreement that the airline
operators of Nigeria would nominate either from themselves or from other major
oil marketers who should be given the opportunity to import this product and
get the necessary foreign exchange for that purpose.
“That will now increase more supply and perhaps drive down
the cost.
“So, this is not unique to Nigeria. Unfortunately, we’re
going through this phase, but civil aviation from time to time always survives
challenges. They come, unfortunately, but then you see civil aviation graphs
keep going up.
“We hope that this is a temporary thing around the world and
we hope that Jet A1 will be very available everywhere and at a very good price.
“We hope in the future they will learn to do away with all
these carbon emitters and have much more cleaner energy, which will be more
readily available for everybody on a very cheaper cost to make civil aviation
transportation the preferred choice.”
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