• Home
  • Anti-Corruption
  • Fact-Check
  • Economy
  • National
    • Government
  • Security
  • Features
  • State
  • Event
    • PR Nigeria Award
  • E-Paper
Search
  • Home
  • About
  • Adverts
  • Contact
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
PRNIGERIA PRNigeria News
PRNIGERIA PRNIGERIA
  • Home
  • Anti-Corruption
    • ICPC Secures Conviction of Rector for Running Unaccredited Degree Programmes

      Engr Abba Babagana Dalori

      Engr Dalori Forfeits Galaxy Hospital, Petrol Station, Properties & Cash

      Chinese nationals jailed in Lagos

      Court Jails Nine Chinese Nationals for Cybercrime in Lagos

      ASUU

      Tackle Corruption, Institutional Decay – ASUU Charges FG

      EFCC Arraigns Bauchi Accountant General Over N8bn Fraud as Court Sentences…

  • Fact-Check
  • Economy
    • Trade Facilitation: Nigeria Customs, NACCIMA Strengthen Partnership

      Economic Confidential to Host 3rd Public Lecture, Unveil Books on Nigeria’s…

      Luanda Summit: AUDA-NEPAD Taps AI, Green Bonds as it Launches Marketplace…

      Tinubu Jets to Brazil After Japan Summit, Eyes Trade, Security Deals

      Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi (MFR), hosted the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Dr. Zacch Adedeji,

      Customs and the “National Single Window” Project

  • National
    • NDLEA Logo

      Drug Kingpin, 5 Others Arrested as NDLEA Moves to Clear Innocent…

      Senator Shehu Buba Condoles with APC National Chairman over Mother’s Death

      Customs College Graduates 50 Officers, Urges Innovation, Discipline

      Police Repatriate Wanted Chinese Fugitive

      Prof ibrahim gambari Chief of Staff

      Reciprocity, Key to Global Relations, Says Ex-Minister Gambari

    • Government
      • African Security: Nigeria Leads from the Front By Edward Gabkwet

        Senator Shehu Buba Condoles with APC National Chairman over Mother’s Death

        CG Custom Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and Zacch Adedeji

        Is Zacch Adedeji Building Bridges for Nigeria’s Revenue Future? By Yushau…

        ACF

        Arewa Consultative Forum Engages Influencers to Amplify Northern Identity

        FG, States, LGs Share N2.001trn for July, Says FAAC

  • Security
    • Customs, CDCFIB Forge Partnership to Boost National Security

      General Musa Rallies African Defence Chiefs to Build Homegrown Security Solutions

      Army Hands Over Fake Major to Police in Lagos

      African Security: Nigeria Leads from the Front By Edward Gabkwet

      NDLEA Logo

      Drug Kingpin, 5 Others Arrested as NDLEA Moves to Clear Innocent…

  • Features
    • African Security: Nigeria Leads from the Front By Edward Gabkwet

      CG Custom Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and Zacch Adedeji

      Is Zacch Adedeji Building Bridges for Nigeria’s Revenue Future? By Yushau…

      Army soldiers security

      Mattress of Terror: Can Nigeria Ever Be Truly Secure? By Haroon…

      The Arrest of Ansaru Kingpins Mahmud Muhammad Usman aka Abu Bara’a, and Mahmud al-Nigeri aka Mallam Mamuda

      Ribadu and the fall of Ansaru By Senator Iroegbu

      Fixing the Fault Lines in Nigeria’s Culture of Recognition, By Mukhtar…

  • State
    • Army Hands Over Fake Major to Police in Lagos

      NDLEA Logo

      Drug Kingpin, 5 Others Arrested as NDLEA Moves to Clear Innocent…

      Military Troops in Action

      Troops Repel Bandits Attack in Katsina, Rescue Abductees in Kogi

      Police Officer

      Police Repel Bandit Attack, Arrest Child Trafficker, Rescue 11 Victims in…

      AbdulRazaq visits Babanla, other communities as new security deployments boost public…

  • Event
    • Economic Confidential to Host 3rd Public Lecture, Unveil Books on Nigeria’s…

      President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

      His Death is a National Loss, Tinubu Mourns Emir of Zuru

      Umar Lauya

      Umar Lauya Declares Candidacy for NYCN Presidency, Vows to Unite and…

      The Executive Secretary/CEO of the National Sugar Department Council (NSDC), Mr. Kamar Bakrin (L), with the CEO of Legacy Sugar Company, Alh. Abubakar Isa Musa (R), during the signing ceremony.

      NSDC, New Operators Seal Landmark Development Agreements, to Produce 400,000MT of…

      Regional Vice President Western and Central Africa at the World Bank, Mr Ousmane Diagana pays a courtesy visit to Baze University

      World Bank Vice President visits Baze University, Commends Educational Standards, Assures…

    • PR Nigeria Award
  • E-Paper
Home State Refuting Wild Claims About the Birnin Kebbi Aviation Fuel Depot
  • State

Refuting Wild Claims About the Birnin Kebbi Aviation Fuel Depot

By
Abdullahi Usman
-
March 16, 2025
Birnin Kebbi International Airport
Birnin Kebbi International Airport

Refuting Wild Claims About the Birnin Kebbi Aviation Fuel Depot

It is always good to hear that evident improvements are taking place in one’s dear state, and the March 12, 2025 report by the Kebbi State Commissioner of Information and Culture, Yakubu Ahmed BK, on the commissioning of a dedicated 180,000 litres capacity Aviation Fuel Depot at the Sir Ahmadu Bello International Airport (SABIA), Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, is one such example.

Having said that, however, his mode of presentation on the significance of the said fuel depot has been grossly exaggerated beyond what is practicable, and it sure didn’t need to be so. Granted, government press handlers have this general tendency to want to always make their principal look good at every opportunity. But even that needs to be done with some reasonable degree of decorum, which has sadly not been the case here.

To a very large extent, the Commissioner may have achieved his primary objective of portraying his principal to the teeming familiar crowd of the gullible ones out there in the intended larger-than-life fashion. But to that same extent, he has also exposed his manifest lack of understanding and appreciation of the Aviation sector, especially as it relates to aircraft refueling operations and the strict sets of rules and procedures guiding it.

That fact alone has now presented a veritable opportunity in the form of a teachable moment of sorts that I would like to take advantage of to correct some of the obvious errors in his entire communication around the said aviation fuel depot at SABIA. To do that, we need to dispense with his ludicrous claims about the reported transformation of SABIA “from an unrecognized terminal to a hub of global aviation where flights now land not just for pilgrims, but also for refueling from various International destinations”.

An online dictionary source defines an “international hub” as a “… central location, often an airport or a port, that serves as a major point of connection for international travel, trade, or logistics, facilitating the movement of people or goods between different countries”.

The question then is, when exactly did SABIA, Birnin Kebbi become an international hub, or a hub for global aviation, to use his exact words? Apart from the annual Hajj airlift operations involving a few dedicated flights as approved by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), and perhaps the occasional chartered Umrah flights here and there, which other international airlines land in Birnin Kebbi? Which destinations do those flights connect from there?

Secondly, I do not regard myself as an expert on aviation fuel refueling operations by any stretch of the imagination. But having headed the nationwide refueling operations of a major oil marketer for a number of years, during which I also doubled as the Secretary of the Aviation Managers Forum of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), I should certainly know a thing or two about the subject.

The aviation industry is one of the most regulated industries in the world for obvious reasons, and aircraft refueling operations are no less so. There are strict standards, processes and procedures guiding the establishment and operation of Aviation Depots, which the industry regulators and the airlines themselves do not joke with.

That is precisely why there are mandatory stipulated daily early morning checks in place that must be carried out by the jet fuel suppliers at their respective depots, along with the usual parameter tests at the foot of the aircraft that must be witnessed by the airline representatives before each refueling operation. The international airlines, on their part, do also carry out scheduled annual or spot inspection audits at the depots to ascertain their continuing adherence to the stipulated standards for such operations.

Even before such routine visits by the airline customers happen, the IATA Fuel Quality Pool (IFQP) inspectors, comprising a group of airlines that actively share fuel inspection workload and reports globally, must have inspected and certified your depot handling and refueling operations and processes and published their findings on the International Air Transport Association (IATA) portal for all member airlines to see. The initial and routine annual IFQP inspections are done using the Joint Inspection Group (JIG) standards, which is an international organisation that monitors and ensures that the transportation and storage of jet fuel in a safe manner across the world’s largest airports.

The IFQP inspection and eventual certification, without which no international airline will ever patronise your refueling operations, remains one of the most eagerly anticipated and challenging periods for any Aviation Manager. It will be great to hear from the Commissioner when that took place in the case of the new aviation fuel mini depot at SABIA.

Read Also:

  • Customs, CDCFIB Forge Partnership to Boost National Security
  • General Musa Rallies African Defence Chiefs to Build Homegrown Security Solutions
  • Army Hands Over Fake Major to Police in Lagos

Away from the quality side of things, there is also the small matter of the constant availability of the product that, in addition to regular and timely replenishment, can only be guaranteed by the relative size of a marketer’s secondary storage facility at the airports. The relative proximity of the secondary storage to the primary storage facilities is also a huge factor. And the farther away one is from the other, the bigger the secondary storage necessarily needs to be to guarantee a reasonable stockholding of a minimum of 6 days’ supply to your contracted airline customers on average at any point in time.

To address the all-important airport storage issue in a more cost-effective and holistic manner, marketers have been known to come together to jointly build and operate shared common storages like the Joint Users Hydrant Installation (JUHI) at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, and the Joint Aviation Facility (JAF) at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, for example. Just recently, on October 17th, 2024, the Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, commissioned the long-awaited 15 million litres capacity JUHI 2 in Ikeja, which adds to the JUHI 1 and the respective marketers’ individual storages there.

Again, the standard practice is that all airlines, both local and international, do have in place executed fuel supply contracts with the respective marketers that are renewed annually, even though some small operators and one-time visitors do make ad hoc purchases occasionally. The airlines execute such contracts with more than one marketer to spread their risks, as opposed to putting all their eggs in a single basket by way of having only one dedicated supplier. That way, in the event that one supplier runs out of Jet Fuel or Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK), as it is also called, the other(s) can easily supply them. The suppliers must always put them on notice well in advance in the event of any anticipated supply disruptions, in order not to disrupt their schedules.

For international airlines specifically, they usually have programmed slots on specific days of the week for their suppliers, and any of them can cover for the other in the event of supply disruptions affecting either of them. In the (un)likely event of a general scarcity affecting all marketers, however, the airlines are usually notified to come with enough jet fuel in their tanks and only top up with just about enough volumes to fly to the next destination to take in more.

I, therefore, struggle to rationalise the outrageous claim by the Kebbi Commissioner of Information and Culture where he stressed for emphasis that “it is on record that aircraft on international routes land at the airport for the sole purpose of refueling and moving on”.

Apart from the requirement of the IFQP certification and the prerequisite of a subsisting business relationship between the depot operator at SABIA and the individual airlines that are both required to make that possible, the miserly 180,000 litres capacity storage does not even support such a claim. More so when there are numerous other marketers-owned and operated storage facilities with combined capacities running into millions of litres at the nation’s major international airports in Abuja, Kano, Lagos and Port Harcourt, where these airlines usually land and operate at.

With such readily accessible larger storage facilities at these four strategically located major airports across the country, I wonder what level of tomfoolery will push any serious international airline pilot to make a detour to Birnin Kebbi just to refuel at its mini depot that is the equivalent of a few of fuel tankers in terms of capacity. Aviation refueling is not your typical petrol or diesel refueling by Damfo or Molue commercial drivers, who may be at liberty to break their journey at will to refuel at any available roadside filling station, enroute their respective destinations.

Plus, the average ATK volumes consumed by these international flights in a single refueling operation is such that SABIA’s 180,000-litre capacity storage will not even be attractive enough. Just by way of illustration, a DHL Cargo flight from Lagos to Johannesburg will take an average of 65,000 litres of jet fuel during refueling, for example; a British Airways flight to London Heathrow with require around 70,000 litres; just as a Delta Airlines non-stop flight from Lagos to Atlanta will consume between 120,000 to 130,000 litres. Pray, what will be left for the depot operators’ local airline customers after a single refueling operation?

The fact that one or two local airlines flying into Sokoto might have ran into a possible stockout situation at the Sir Abubakar III International Airport and detoured to Birnin Kebbi to take a few thousands of litres is not enough justification to make such wild claims about international airlines refueling there. If it holds true, the Commissioner should please release the names of those airlines and the respective dates they stopped over just to refuel.

In conclusion, I am saying all this just to let the author understand and recognise the untenable slant to his wide-off-the-mark claims, and to urge him to please desist from making such embarrassing submissions that are not backed by logic or facts in the future.

Abdullahi Usman writes from Abuja

VISIT OUR OTHER WEBSITES
PRNigeria.com EconomicConfidential.com PRNigeria.com/Hausa/
EmergencyDigest.com PoliticsDigest.ng TechDigest.ng
HealthDigest.ng SpokesPersonsdigest.com TeensDigest.ng
ArewaAgenda.com Hausa.ArewaAgenda.com YAShuaib.com
  • TAGS
  • Aviation Fuel Depot
  • Kebbi State
  • Kebbi State Commissioner of Information and Culture
Previous articleNDLEA Blocks Cocaine, Tramadol Shipments to Italy, 4 Other Countries
Next articleNigeria’s Diplomatic Triumph and the Future of Africa’s Security
Abdullahi Usman
Abdullahi Usman

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Army Hands Over Fake Major to Police in Lagos

NDLEA Logo

Drug Kingpin, 5 Others Arrested as NDLEA Moves to Clear Innocent Pilgrims Detained in Saudi Arabia 

Military Troops in Action

Troops Repel Bandits Attack in Katsina, Rescue Abductees in Kogi

Police Officer

Police Repel Bandit Attack, Arrest Child Trafficker, Rescue 11 Victims in Benue

AbdulRazaq visits Babanla, other communities as new security deployments boost public safety

NDLEA Arrest Widow Using Fake Pregnancy to Traffic Cocaine, Destroy Skunk in Edo, Taraba, Ondo, Delta

Kano Police Transfer 23 Officers Amid Probe into Alleged Corruption at Sheka Division

The eliminated terrorists and their weapons

OPHK Troops Neutralize Scores of Terrorists in Borno and Yobe States

Police Neutralise Kidnappers, Arrest Suspects, Recover Arms in Nationwide Crackdown

Police Officer

Police Raid Bandits’ Camps, Recover Arms, Arrest Suspects in Benue

Nigerian Navy Personnel

Navy Dismantles Illegal Refining Site in Bayelsa

ACF

Arewa Consultative Forum Engages Influencers to Amplify Northern Identity

Recent Posts

  • Customs, CDCFIB Forge Partnership to Boost National Security
  • General Musa Rallies African Defence Chiefs to Build Homegrown Security Solutions
  • Army Hands Over Fake Major to Police in Lagos
  • African Security: Nigeria Leads from the Front By Edward Gabkwet
  • Trade Facilitation: Nigeria Customs, NACCIMA Strengthen Partnership
  • Home
  • About
  • Adverts
  • Contact
© 2020 PRNigeria. All Rights Reserved.
Latest News
Customs, CDCFIB Forge Partnership to Boost National SecurityGeneral Musa Rallies African Defence Chiefs to Build Homegrown Security SolutionsArmy Hands Over Fake Major to Police in LagosAfrican Security: Nigeria Leads from the Front By Edward GabkwetTrade Facilitation: Nigeria Customs, NACCIMA Strengthen PartnershipDrug Kingpin, 5 Others Arrested as NDLEA Moves to Clear Innocent Pilgrims Detained in Saudi Arabia Troops Repel Bandits Attack in Katsina, Rescue Abductees in KogiOver 1,000 Terror Groups Threaten Africa’s Stability - UN EnvoyPolice Repel Bandit Attack, Arrest Child Trafficker, Rescue 11 Victims in BenueAbdulRazaq visits Babanla, other communities as new security deployments boost public safetySenator Shehu Buba Condoles with APC National Chairman over Mother's DeathNDLEA Arrest Widow Using Fake Pregnancy to Traffic Cocaine, Destroy Skunk in Edo, Taraba, Ondo, DeltaCustoms College Graduates 50 Officers, Urges Innovation, DisciplineKano Police Transfer 23 Officers Amid Probe into Alleged Corruption at Sheka DivisionPolice Repatriate Wanted Chinese Fugitive
X whatsapp