Nigerian airlines may be left with no other option than to embark on strike, as oil marketers can no longer hold due to continuous price hikes aviation fuel.
It would be recalled that last week, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and domestic airlines, during a meeting with members of the House of Representatives, reached an agreement that the corporation would aviation fuel to marketers nominated by airline operators for a period of three months at N480 per litre, pending when the carriers would be granted licences to import the commodity.
Sources familiar with the deal disclosed that the agreement can no longer continue. This is because the corporation no longer has products.
More so, oil marketers who sold at N480 per litre have run out of products, and local airlines have returned to buying at higher prices.
Speaking on the matter, Chairman of MOMAN Clement Isong disclosed that the agreement to sell at N480 per litre for three months was not with all marketers.
“The House of Reps didn’t have any agreement with marketers. The only person that had an agreement with them was Tunji Oyebanji, who at that time had six million litres. He was asked to sell at N480 per litre, and the product has almost finished. Six million litres cannot last for three months. So, because the agreement was with just him, other marketers sell at different prices depending on how much the product was brought in,” he said.
According to him, while the two cargoes brought in by the NNPC was sold to marketers at N432.6 per litre and N462 per litre respectively, marketers sold to operators at N540 per litre, adding that the NNPC was able to sell at lesser price because it could access the foreign exchange.
“No forex everywhere and NNPC cannot subsidise the products,” he added.
