The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has found several unlicensed JET A1 marketers operating out of Nigerian airports and selling the product to unwary airlines.
According to The Punch, while looking into the cause of the jet fuel pollution, of which Max Air was a victim, it uncovered this revelation.
The infiltration of unregistered marketers was found at a meeting with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission/Department of Petroleum Resources, according to the Director-General, NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, in a Zoom meeting with aviation media on Thursday.
He pointed out that these unregistered fuel vendors were breaking the law when they operated at Nigerian airports.
According to him, the DPR provided the Authority with a list of aviation fuel suppliers that were approved, but the Authority later learned that some of the suppliers which were not on the list were still in business at the airports.
He added that the NCAA intended to inform Nigeria’s Federal Airports Authority of the information in order to have the unlawful operators barred.
According to him, “We are working with the DPR on it, and we have a list of all the businesses that have been authorized by the DPR. Since we discovered that some of these businesses weren’t authorized, we will inform FAAN so that they remove their services until they can satisfy all requirements.
“Jet A1 requires a lot of standards, thus any provider must be certified. There was formerly a gap between the DPR and NCAA, but it has already been filled. Fuel contamination is an unacceptable problem; no international airline has also reported fuel contamination, but it is an issue that needs to be addressed.”
A group made up of members of pertinent agencies has been established to evaluate the entire system and offer suggestions. However, he emphasized that it is still the airline’s and the pilot’s obligation to check the fuel.
Additionally, a dependable source who wished to remain anonymous told the NCAA that the Authority had named the firms responsible for the recent sale of tainted aviation fuel to MaxAir.
The source claimed that “the three oil companies that sold the fuel have been identified in the course of its investigation.”
