• 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
    • PRNigeria Fellows and CEO IMPR Yushau A Shuaib

      PRNigeria Fellowship: A Model for NIPSS Kuru

      Africa’s Economic Ties Deepen as Nigeria, Benin Sign Joint Trade Plan

      Customs Partners US Mission to Prevent Expanded Visa Ban

      Nigeria Customs Partners China on Smarter Ports, Officer Training, Reforms

      Comptroller General Nigerian Customs Bashir Adewale

      Customs Moves Against 223 Importers in N379bn Permit Breach

  • National
    • PRNigeria Fellows and CEO IMPR Yushau A Shuaib

      PRNigeria Fellowship: A Model for NIPSS Kuru

      Peter Obi

      Peter Obi Reaffirms One-Term Presidential Vow, Says “My Word Is My…

      Nigerian Police Force

      PSC Denies Police Recruitment, Warns Against Fraudulent Online Claims

      Military Troops in Action

      Troops Raid Bandits Camps, Eliminate 1, Recover Motorcycles

      DSS, NNPCL and EFCC

      NNPCL Controversy: Arewa Economic Forum Raises Alarm as EFCC, DSS Refute…

    • Government
      • Peter Obi

        Peter Obi Reaffirms One-Term Presidential Vow, Says “My Word Is My…

        DSS, NNPCL and EFCC

        NNPCL Controversy: Arewa Economic Forum Raises Alarm as EFCC, DSS Refute…

        International Press Institute IPI

        IPI Nigeria Demands Immediate Reopening of Badegi FM, Threatens to List…

        Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Bayo Ojulari

        Purported Resignation: Who are after NNPC Boss Bashir Ojulari

        The Paramount Ruler of Oka-Akoko, His Imperial Majesty Oba (Dr) Yusuf Adebori Adeleye, OON, the Olubaka of Oka

        Olubaka of Oka Praises Foundation for “Best Oka Day” Festival

  • Security
    • PRNigeria Fellows and CEO IMPR Yushau A Shuaib

      PRNigeria Fellowship: A Model for NIPSS Kuru

      Nigerian Police Force

      PSC Denies Police Recruitment, Warns Against Fraudulent Online Claims

      Military Troops in Action

      Troops Raid Bandits Camps, Eliminate 1, Recover Motorcycles

      Troops Kill 3 Terrorists in Borno, Recover Weapons, Motorcycles

      NDLEA Logo

      NDLEA Intercepts Cocaine, Tramadol Hidden in Vehicle Side Mirrors, Arrests Multiple…

  • Features
    • DSS, NNPCL and EFCC

      NNPCL Controversy: Arewa Economic Forum Raises Alarm as EFCC, DSS Refute…

      Tinubu’s Greek gift by Festus Adedayo

      CG Customs Bashir Adewale Adeniyi

      Customs Just Wrote Nigeria’s Energy Rulebook

      Okello Oculi

      Okello Oculi: A Pan-Africanist Asteroid Burns out Forever By Is’haq Modibbo…

      Leon Usigbe

      Death, you can’t be Proud of this By Abdulrahman Abdulraheem 

  • State
    • Prof Pate donates laptops to UNIMAID

      Prof Pate donates 20 Laptop Computers to UNIMAID

      Troops Kill 3 Terrorists in Borno, Recover Weapons, Motorcycles

      After ₦250m Ransom Demand, Security Guard Arrested for Murder of Caregiver,…

      court Judiciary

      Lawyer Sues Housing Ministry, FHA Over Alleged Property Redesign

      Army Commander keeps 100 students in school

      Army Commander’s Compassion Keeps 100 Students in School in Zamfara

  • Event
    • Prof Pate donates laptops to UNIMAID

      Prof Pate donates 20 Laptop Computers to UNIMAID

      D'Tigress Basketball team

      Will Presidential Gifts Follow as Nigerian Female Basketballers D’Tigress Reach 5th…

      The Paramount Ruler of Oka-Akoko, His Imperial Majesty Oba (Dr) Yusuf Adebori Adeleye, OON, the Olubaka of Oka

      Olubaka of Oka Praises Foundation for “Best Oka Day” Festival

      court Judiciary

      Lawyer Sues Housing Ministry, FHA Over Alleged Property Redesign

      Sam Obi Sponsors 500 students

      Sam Obi Sponsors 500 Students in Evergreen, SimplifiedIQ’s Education Program

    • 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:

  • PRNigeria Fellowship: A Model for NIPSS Kuru
  • Peter Obi Reaffirms One-Term Presidential Vow, Says “My Word Is My Bond”
  • PSC Denies Police Recruitment, Warns Against Fraudulent Online Claims

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

Prof Pate donates laptops to UNIMAID

Prof Pate donates 20 Laptop Computers to UNIMAID

Troops Kill 3 Terrorists in Borno, Recover Weapons, Motorcycles

After ₦250m Ransom Demand, Security Guard Arrested for Murder of Caregiver, Toddler in Abuja School

court Judiciary

Lawyer Sues Housing Ministry, FHA Over Alleged Property Redesign

Army Commander keeps 100 students in school

Army Commander’s Compassion Keeps 100 Students in School in Zamfara

Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, receiving the land document from Governor Pastor Umo Bassey Eno in Akwa Ibom

Akwa Ibom Boosts National Security with Land Donation for Nigerian Air Force Base

Nigerian Army

Army Denies Allegations of Misconduct in Imo Community

Military Troops in Action

Troops Repel Bandit Attacks in Katsina, Plateau, Recover Rustled Cattle, Sustain Casualties

Nigerian Navy Personnel

Navy Destroys 10 Illegal Refineries in Niger Delta

Beyond Hoes and Sticks: The Power of Education for Peace in Arewa

National Blood Service Agency

FG Pledges Stronger Support for Blood Services, Seeks Scalable Interventions from NBSA

Tinubu’s Government Unveils Multi-Sectoral Initiatives to Boost Northern Region’s Development

Recent Posts

  • PRNigeria Fellowship: A Model for NIPSS Kuru
  • Peter Obi Reaffirms One-Term Presidential Vow, Says “My Word Is My Bond”
  • PSC Denies Police Recruitment, Warns Against Fraudulent Online Claims
  • Prof Pate donates 20 Laptop Computers to UNIMAID
  • Africa’s Economic Ties Deepen as Nigeria, Benin Sign Joint Trade Plan
  • Home
  • About
  • Adverts
  • Contact
© 2020 PRNigeria. All Rights Reserved.
Latest News
PRNigeria Fellowship: A Model for NIPSS KuruPeter Obi Reaffirms One-Term Presidential Vow, Says “My Word Is My Bond”PSC Denies Police Recruitment, Warns Against Fraudulent Online ClaimsProf Pate donates 20 Laptop Computers to UNIMAIDAfrica’s Economic Ties Deepen as Nigeria, Benin Sign Joint Trade PlanTroops Raid Bandits Camps, Eliminate 1, Recover MotorcyclesNNPCL Controversy: Arewa Economic Forum Raises Alarm as EFCC, DSS Refute ClaimsIPI Nigeria Demands Immediate Reopening of Badegi FM, Threatens to List Governor Bago in Black BookTinubu’s Greek gift by Festus AdedayoTroops Kill 3 Terrorists in Borno, Recover Weapons, MotorcyclesNDLEA Intercepts Cocaine, Tramadol Hidden in Vehicle Side Mirrors, Arrests Multiple Suspects NationwideCustoms, ICPC Partner to Curb Smuggling, Boost Revenue Through Transparent EnforcementPolice Spokesperson Muyiwa Adejobi Promoted to DCPPurported Resignation: Who are after NNPC Boss Bashir OjulariWill Presidential Gifts Follow as Nigerian Female Basketballers D’Tigress Reach 5th Consecutive AfroBasket Final?
X whatsapp