BY CHUKWUEMEKE IWELUNMO
The Federal government has been called upon not to allow non owners of Jet A1 marketers without depot sell the product to airlines at the airport in the interest of safety, normalcy and quality
The Chairman of Aviation Fuel Marketers Association of Nigeria (AFMAN) Dr. Thomas Ogungbangbe, who disclosed this in an interview with some aviation journalists in his office at the airport, said the call became necessary in the interest of safety and to control quality
According to Dr Ogungbangbe who is also the Group Managing Director of CITA aviation fuelling company, the call has nothing to do with competition as there will always be competition no matter the number of marketers
“So, it is not about competition or pricing but it’s about safety, quality control. It is just in order that in this kind of business that we do, if you do not have any depot where you can have control on your quality control, you don’t have business in that airport”.
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According to him, any marketer without signed agreement with the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria of any built depot, such marketer has no business in the airport
He added that signing ordinary commercial agreement to be supplying airlines aviation fuel is not done anywhere adding that Joint Ventures were allowed but not to be supplying airlines fuel without investment on ground
“If any company does anything and something happens, they will easily remove the sticker on their fuelling truck disappear, their head office is unknown”
Ogungbangbe, remarked that for anyone to be involved in the business of JET A1, there must be a depot and be recognised by the department of petroleum resources and not moving from one marketer to the other
He noted that with all the depot across the country, they will be able to service twice the operating airlines in the country adding that the original six companies earlier established in the country were capable of do what they have on ground today as far as they were supply
On the skyrocketed price of aviation fuel, Ogungbangbe was optimistic that in the next few months should the exchange rate drops, the price of product will drop as it was determined by Forex
He however expressed optimism that with the coming on stream of Dangote refinery, scarcity of aviation fuel will be a thing of the past as the refinery has the capacity of servicing not only Nigeria but Africa.
The Chairman of AFMAN noted that aviation fuel suppliers have risen from six in the last 20 years to almost 50 saying, the increase has reduced profitability and led to high headed aggression in an elitists environment being over subscribed
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