The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited says
it will grant a licence to the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) to start
importing aviation fuel, otherwise known as ATK.
Mele Kyari, group managing director, NNPC, disclosed this on
Monday at the end of the investigative hearing instituted by the house of
representatives.
The meeting was to resolve the differences between oil
marketers and airline operators on the price surge of ATK.
Airline operators in Nigeria had alleged that some oil
marketers were hoarding aviation fuel, thereby causing artificial scarcity.
“As requested by the
airline operators of Nigeria, there would be granted licence by their authority
to import petroleum products, particularly ATK, so that they can have a way of
benchmarking the sales from other customers. They can also bring in cheaper
products whenever it is possible,” Kyari said.
He said this in response to the request by AON during the
hearing to grant airlines a licence to import aviation fuel.
Allen Onyema, chairman of Air Peace, said if airline
operators could import aircraft that cost millions of dollars, they would not
find it difficult to import the aviation fuel.
He emphasised that if the oil marketers do not bring down
commodity prices, the airlines could ground operations in three days.
“I wish to announce that if they don’t come down from their
rooftop, we have only three days more to operate,” he said.
VIDEO NEWS: The GMD/CEO #NNPC Ltd, Mallam @MKKyari on the resolution reached by MOMAN, DAPPMA and the Airline Operators of Nigeria 👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/PdnD4DvL1E
— NNPCLimited (@NNPCgroup) March 14, 2022
In response, Kyari said representatives of the oil
marketers’ association and airline operators would meet to deliberate on the
benchmark for pricing to achieve transparency and price alignment.
“In the next three days, representations from MOMAN, DAPPMAN
and the airline operators would sit down and agree on a transparent basis for
pricing, which means that they have to have a reference benchmark that is
quoted transparently in the market,” he said.
“They will have a reference exchange rate for the naira so
that anyone can compute and so they will also engage and agree on a premium,
which differs from customer-to-customer, depending on the volume of the
products you buy, and then the credit limit you are ready to do.
“So this is one thing
that they can negotiate in three days and close so that going forward there is
a transparent basis of pricing.
“This would no doubt throw out the actual value of the
product in the market. You would not see these huge discrepancies that we have
seen where some people are selling at N445 and some are selling at N630. This
will completely bring it to almost closure that you will not see such
differences.
“Secondly, we agreed
that in the interim, between now and the three days that they will close the
basis for pricing because the lowest we have seen as of this morning is N445
and another high of 605. There is a trader that is selling at 630, we don’t
think this is normal.”
According to Kyari, the parties agreed to peg the price of
the aviation fuel at N500 for the next three to four days.
“So logically, let me emphasise, we agreed that they will
sell for the next 3 days at N500 to a litre and on day 3 or day 4, they will
switch to the new formula that everyone can access and compute,” the GMD said.
Last month, Nigerian airlines had increased the cost of economy flight tickets for domestic routes from about N35,000 to a base fare of N50,000.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com