Connect with us

Business

Kaduna refinery may produce Aviation fuel to save Nigeria N30bn annually

Published

on

Barring any unforeseen development, the Kaduna Refinery will be dedicated to producing aviation fuel, also known as Jet A1, which has added more hiccups to the aviation industry.

The project, is to make available not less than 2 million litres on demand daily thereby saving the country about N30 billion annually.

Also at the peak of the production, Nigeria will be one of the major exporters of refined of Jet A1 fuel to other neighbouring, different from the present situation whereby airlines frequent Ghana and Ivory Coast to buy the elusive product.

In the past weeks, the sector has been grappling with the hard bite on aviation fuel scarcity, which has seen many flights either cancelled or rescheduled, to the discomfort of passengers.
The crisis had prompted meetings between the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika and his counterpart in the Petroleum Ministry, Ibe Kachikwu.

Read also: Price of kerosene, cooking gas worsening hardship among Nigerians

A senior ministry official said preliminary report show that the Kaduna or Eleme refinery may be penciled down for final approval, though, the fact that the Kaduna refinery is largely more petrochemical in design, Jet A1 could efficiently be refined from there.

The stakeholders’ meeting also emphasised the need to hasten the planned project, given the belief that there lay the answer to many related issues that have been ducking the industry, key among which is scarcity of foreign exchange for major marketers to import enough of the product into the country.

According to the airlines, part of the reasons why air tickets are relatively high in Nigeria is because of the high prices of aviation fuel in addition to charges, which the passenger must have to pay, adding that passenger traffic could increase by 35 per cent with low fuel prices.

“We are committed to it, we will begin to produce it and if there is anything we can do to bring down the price we will do so. The whole essence of refining it locally is not only to make it available, but it will also make it cheaper because then the element of importation is removed,” Sirika said.

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now