Sade Williams/Business a.m.

To ensure the quality of aviation fuel, also known as Jet-A1, stakeholders in the aviation sector have called on relevant regulatory agencies to ensure strict monitoring, enforcement of standards and the implementation of cleaner fuel specifications along the supply chain.

Speaking at a Colloquium on “Aviation Fuel Business in Nigeria: The Scenario and the Metaphor’  in Lagos, Thomas Ogungbangbe, managing director of  CITA Energies, called for dedicated regulatory framework, saying  a Jet-A1 specific regulatory directorate under the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) or Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) would ensure policy enforcement and sector monitoring.

He is of the opinion that it was vital as an industry to ensure it handles Jet A1 delivery to airlines with established international and local regulations to avoid compromise.

Ogungbangbe also slammed prolifération of fuel marketers, raising the alarm that if not checked by relevant agencies, the quality of aviation fuel will remain a thorny issue posing threat to safety and security of operations.

“The issue of  product quality, monitoring and regulations is the main thing now and no longer availability. The issue of availability has been addressed in the 18 months by Dangote refinery. 15 years ago, we had just six marketers, but we have over 45 marketers now. As much as we appreciate this, we have issues with different products from different sources, this is a serious concern, bringing products from places that are unknown to the regulatory agencies and the process,” he said.

Chris Ndulue, former managing director of Arik Air, asked the PPPRA to extend its surveillance to the marketers and not only fuel depots, adding that the gap in monitoring should also be filled by the NCAA who is in charge of aviation.

He urged the NCAA to not only focus on licensing marketers but on the wider implications of lifting and delivering the product to aircraft and the ability of marketers to work without compromising standards.

“There’s is a gap that the NCAA needs to fill because of the peculiarity of aviation fuel, it should begin to look at the economic and financial health of the marketers, if they do not have enough capital and want to sell fuel, they would sell ‘black market’ and contaminated products to the operators; there is need for better regulations to ensure quality, safety and security of the sector,” he said.

Richard Aisuebeigun, a former managing director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, who delivered the keynote address, said the leadership of the sector must ensure collaboration and unwavering support for quality products in the interest of safety.

Peter Diya of Vintage Nigeria urged stakeholders to play the game by the rule, urging marketers to be truthful about quality and work together to ensure safety.

There had been reported cases in the recent past that some marketers were selling kerosene as jet-A1 to airlines.

There were allegations these marketers who were importing kerosene and collecting subsidies on it from the government  were selling it as jet-A1 to airlines.

Meanwhile, Ogungbangbe called for the restoration of the pipelines that supply fuel from Atlas Cove to the Lagos airport, saying this will keep over 100 fuel trucks from the roads.

The pipeline running from Atlas Cove to Lagos Airport is the Atlas-Cove-Mosimi-Lagos Airport pipeline, which is a 94km underground pipeline for aviation fuel.

This infrastructure has been shut down for many years due to damage and vandalism, forcing the use of road trucks for fuel delivery, but the MD of CITA Energies is calling  for the revamping of the pipeline.

The pipeline was built to efficiently and safely transport aviation fuel from the coastal terminal at Atlas Cove, through Mosimi, directly to the Lagos Airport.

“The government should revisit the restoration of the 98 kilometers of pipelines running from the Atlas Cove to the airports. There’s also the need to have hydrant pipes around, if this is done, it will keep away not less than 100 trucks from Lagos roads daily,” he added.