MOMAN seeks forex concession to address aviation fuel scarcity

Oredola Adeola

…Insinuates unethical business traits by airline operators.

Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has called on the Federal Government to permit foreign exchange concessions to marketers of aviation fuel (Jet A1) to enable them to address the hike in price and scarcity.

This according to him, will serve as a stop gap measure to stabilize seamless flow of aviation fuel while managing price fluctuations without hiccups.

The Oil Marketers are asking across board, the adoption of common standards by stakeholders which will promote transparency particularly in the areas of financial integrity and respect for contractual relationship.

Clement Isong, Executive Secretary of MOMAN, made this known on Wednesday in response to the efforts made by the marketers on the crisis affecting the availability of the Jet A1.

The MOMAN ES particularly said marketers should be offered opportunity to obtain forex at a concessionary rate instead of sourcing from the open market.

Isong said, “The rise and fall of oil prices is cyclical. We have been here before and we are hoping that within a short period the international supply of crude will adjust to meet demand and prices will come down to more acceptable levels.

“There is aviation fuel in the country. However, the product is expensive. Many of us who have contracts with international airlines have to keep stocks for them.

“Now, international airlines pay for their products based on a pricing formula, so it is predictable. There is no quarrel on the price. It is Platts plus Premium.

“The Premium is fixed. The Platts, which is a price benchmark service for the oil industry, goes up and down depending on the international market price.”

“I should also add that we buy the product in forex and the foreign airlines pay in forex. So there is no forex risk.

“For the local airlines, there are two challenges. First of all they don’t like signing binding contracts based on pricing formulas. They prefer running from one marketer to another trying to get products at cheaper rates.

“Secondly, many of the airline operators are owing. They are owing millions of Naira to the industry, not just marketers alone. When they finish from one marketer, they run to another one.