Aviation fuel scarcity exacerbated by Nigerians smuggling it to neighbouring countries

WEALTHY Nigerians are exacerbating the current scarcity of jet fuel in the country by smuggling the produce to neighbouring West African countries according to the chairman of the Senate Aviation Committee Senator Smart Adeyemi.

Over recent months, the Nigerian aviation industry has been hit hard by a scarcity of aviation fuel, which has forced many domestic airline to cut back on flights. With prices ballooning out of control, many of the airlines have warned that they may be forced out of business as the spiralling costs are making it impossible to remain in business.

According to Senator Adeyemi, the problem has been worsened by smuggling and the lack of refineries that are desperately needed in Nigeria. To make matters worse, he pointed out that there is an increase in demand for air travel because of the high number of Nigerians who could no longer travel by road due to the growing insecurity across the country.

Senator Adeyemi said: “Before now, we used to procure our oil from Europe but they no longer have that capacity, especially because of the diplomatic issue between Europe and Russia. Europe is no longer buying fuel from Russia, so they have to do with what they have and as you can see, pump prices have gone up in Europe itself.

“The consequence for us is that what we would have used as proceeds is what we are using to import back petrol to the country for local consumption. The same thing goes for aviation as the aviation fuel that is being imported is beyond what our country is consuming and Nigerians are smuggling it to other West African countries, meaning neighbouring countries live on what Nigeria is bringing in and that accounts for why the subsidy keeps increasing.

“The people doing this bunker and stealing of our resources aren’t ordinary Nigerians, they are rich and powerful people who have become cabals. They do this stealing in very large quantities. How can anybody justify that 80% of what we produce is stolen?”

"However, what can we do when the refineries are not working, so the concern of everyone is to make the refineries work and build one or two more refineries. Our inability to make refineries work and the devaluation of the naira are making it difficult for airlines to get the Jet A-1 and once it’s not available, then there is no way people can move."

He noted that the good news, however, was that there was rehabilitation work going on at the Port Harcourt refinery and the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream, will be visiting the area next week to look at the facility. Senator Adeyemi noted that aviation is very important to the socio-economic development of any nation.