The federal authorities is weighing the implications of imposing touchdown charges on Helicopter operators within the nation’s oil and fuel sector.
The nation is estimated to lose over 1.1 million barrels of oil per day (mbd) as operators have vowed to down operations if the federal government implements the brand new prices on their operations.
It’s estimated that 95 per cent of helicopter operations in Nigeria is related to grease and fuel companies, and grounding operations could plummet crude output by 300 barrels a day, bpd.
About 90 per cent of Nigeria oil and fuel manufacturing actions are carried out deep offshore the place helicopter is the one viable technique of every day transportation to and from the services.
Nigeria’s every day crude oil manufacturing output is reportedly round 1.3 million bpd and the motion will power a drop of about 300 bpd.
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has permitted a heliport certification record with oil manufacturing helidecks constituting over ninety per cent of the 105 listed on the doc dated April 2024.
The ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Improvement, mentioned it’s imposing further prices on helicopter touchdown value in Nigeria through a latest memo which directed helicopter operators to compulsorily pay helicopter touchdown charges in any respect Nigerian aerodromes, helipads, airstrips, floating manufacturing storage and offloading (FPSO) items, floating storage and offloading (FSO) items and different oil platforms.
In keeping with the memo signed by the minister, Festus Keyamo, the touchdown charges would solely be collected by a non-public firm, NAEBI Dynamic Idea Restricted.
“It’s crucial that every one operators and stakeholders totally adjust to this mandate, by granting whole entry to Messrs NAEBI Dynamic Idea Restricted for the gathering of the levy, efficient instantly, Non-compliance with this directive will represent a breach of this mandate and can be met with acceptable sanction,” the memo said.
Keyamo in a latest TV interview defined that he inherited the method and permitted it as a result of it might generate extra income for the federal authorities.
He additional said: “The corporate will put the infrastructure in place, make use of personnel and remit to the federal authorities. So, every part can be going to the federation account and the corporate will get their reduce.”
In response, helicopter operators vowed to withstand the fee and threatened to floor their operations if the federal authorities insisted on the fee of the touchdown charges.