Nigerian Flight Deck Travel and Business Reportage
NIGERIAN National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has denounced any real scarcity of Jet A1 also known as aviation fuel in the country attributing the said scarcity as hinted by some airlines to their inability to pay for the product due to the introduction of a cash-and-carry policy by marketers as a result of huge indebtedness by airlines.
Oil marketers had introduced cash-and-carry policy for the purchase of the product following the huge debts which runs into several millions of naira.
The NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr Maikanti Baru, made the clarification during a visit by the management of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) recently.
Baru was reacting to the alleged scarcity of Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK), which is purportedly responsible for the hardship being experienced in the aviation sector.
Baru clarified that NNPC had taken steps to ensure adequate supply of the product with the importation of over 45 million litres, adding that the challenge had more to do with the inability of airlines to pay for the product upon the introduction of a cash-and-carry policy by marketers on account of the huge amount they were being owed by the airlines.
The NNPC boss expressed its commitment to carry on with its twin gas projects, Brass LNG and OK LNG, adding that two projects were high priority gas ventures which promise to boost revenue to the Federal Government.
Baru, said monetization of natural gas was a cardinal mandate of the Corporation.
He said, “We are still committed, as NNPC, to monetizing our natural gas. We have the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) which is at the moment monetizing about four billion standard cubic feet of gas on a daily basis (4 billion scf/d). We also have plans for Olokola LNG as well as Brass LNG.”
“We have a little challenge with market windows for these projects which we are reviewing on a monthly basis. Once the appropriate market window opens up, we will quickly get more shareholders to join us for the projects” Baru explained.
He said a meeting of Brass LNG stakeholders has been scheduled for early next year to see the way forward for the project.
The GMD further disclosed that apart from the LNG projects, NNPC was also working on gas monetization through aggressive enhancement of domestic gas supply for power generation and industrial use.
Many aviation stakeholders have purported that claims of many fuel scarcity were as a result of huge debt with most of them stating that the excuse given by some airlines were not shared by others due to the fact that they were not paying their debts and it becomes difficult for oil marketers to sell the product to them without their payment.
It is said that one airline alone owes oil markerters over N600million and is refusing to pay.
