The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has confirmed that aviation fuel suppliers who were not certified by the authorities infiltrated the airports and sold contaminated fuel to airlines.
This was part of the revelations of the investigation carried out by the regulatory agency after it discovered that some aircraft had high volume of water associated with aviation fuel, known as Jet A1, in their tanks.
Three weeks ago, Max Air Boeing B737-300 aircraft had high volume of water in its fuel tanks, prompting NCAA to kick-off investigation on how water entered the aircraft tanks and zeroed the search on fuel marketers who may have supplied contaminated product to the airports.
Director General, NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, in a Zoom meeting with aviation correspondents yesterday disclosed that the fact that illegal suppliers infiltrated the airports was revealed during a meeting with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NMPDR) of the Department Petroleum Resources (DPR), confirming that some fuel suppliers were operating at Nigeria’s airports illegally.
He said the Authority was given a list of approved aviation fuel companies by the DPR but it discovered that some suppliers currently operating at the airports were not on the list.
Nuhu said the agency would direct the Federal airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to review its approval of oil marketers allowed to sell product at the airports.
“Investigation is ongoing, we are doing this in collaboration with the DPR and we have received the list of all companies approved by the DPR. We found out that some were not approved. We will write FAAN about this to ensure the illegal operators withdraw their services untill they meet all requirements.
“Any Jet A1 supplier must be approved because it needs a lot of standards. Although, there was a gap between the DPR and NCAA but that has been closed. The issue of fuel contamination is not acceptable, no international airline has also reported fuel contamination but it is an alarming thing that needs to be looked into. We have set up a committee comprising representatives of relevant agencies to look at the entire system and make recommendations . But it is still the responsibility of the airline, the pilot to check his fuel”, he said.
Nuhu reiterated that there was a gap between the two regulatory bodies; NCAA and NMPDRA, which the two agencies had closed, noting that NMPDR is cooperating with NCAA to sanitise the sale of aviation fuel to airlines.
“I need to clarify something; the approval we give to marketers is not general. When you are given a license to supply Jet A1, it doesn’t mean you can go to any airport in Nigeria. There is an approval for specific airports. Some have approvals for some airports, but don’t have for another. It is based on this cooperation that we have filed a notice with the NMDPRA that we are addressing this and I think the Director of Airworthiness should have sent out a letter to that effect.
“The issue of fuel contamination is not specific and we have contacted IATA (International Air Transport Association), but it said there was no any of the international airlines that reported fuel contamination and on the domestic side it is the same, too. So, this is a kind of a standalone case and it is also an alarming one and we have to look at the entire process of supply value chains, starting from outside the sector. We are not resting on our oars and we have to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. We have set up a committee comprising of NCAA, FAAN, NSIB and others to make their report to us,” Nuhu said.
Speaking on the Jabiru Aircraft Crash, Nuhu expressed displeasure over unprofessional comments about the accident, sayiing the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has the sole authority to investigate report the cause of the crash.
“I cannot comment on the cause. It is very unfortunate and it was just by the grace of God that it wasn’t disastrous. I have full confidence in the ability of the NSIB, people should avoid mere speculation. NSIB will release the report very shortly but what I have found disappointing is the comments against the. Director, Airworthiness Services. The. Director of Airworthiness is very competent and before he was seconded to the NCAA, he had a life. He does not own the aircraft, he submited letters of resignations from all the companies he worked for, he is even the one that has identified some of these illegal fuel companies, despite unnessary dragging of his name”, Nuhu lamented.
On the forthcoming audit by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to evaluate the safety status of air transport in Nigeria, Nuhu disclosed that the Authority is working 24 hours to close some gaps identified at some airports, revealing that the audit would take place from August 30 to September 11, 2023.
