Aviation Fuel: Marketers Association Debunks N700 Per Litre Price

The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has refuted claims that aviation fuel, otherwise known as Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK), is now being sold at N700 per litre in some parts of the nation.

The development was disclosed by the Executive Secretary, MOMAN, Clement Isong, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday.

The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) had threatened to embark on a strike on May 9, stating that the cost of aviation fuel had risen from N190 per litre to N700 per litre.

Appeals from the federal government and stakeholders in the aviation sector had led to the strike being called off.

Speaking on the alleged price hike, Isong stated: "I am not aware that aviation fuel is sold currently anywhere at N700 per litre.

"There has been an intervention by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd., which is now bringing in ATK.

"It gets into tank, all costs together, at about N500 per litre. If we use Ikeja (Murtala Mohammed Airport, local as a benchmark, it is sold there by marketers between N540 and N550 per litre.

"Nobody with common sense will go and bring in ATK now that NNPC is bringing in product and selling it cheap.

"NNPC is bringing in the product because it is swapping it with crude and when it swaps it with crude it uses the Central Bank of Nigeria exchange rate of N419 to a dollar.

"Meanwhile the product is deregulated. So no normal person can go and get it at that exchange rate. You cannot use N589 (black market rate) to a dollar to bring in the product and sell at N550 per litre.

"ATK as a product is handled very carefully. It is continuously filtered. It is carried by special trucks, so there are extra handling costs.

"Even with these costs, it is sold at the tarmac between N540 and N550 per litre in Lagos, and by the time you carry it all over the country including transportation cost, it will be sold at about N570 or N580 at the farthest airport from Lagos.

"There is no where aviation fuel is sold at N700 per litre."