“There is aviation fuel,” claims US President Donald Trump, calling on countries that are struggling to procure aircraft fuel due to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz to buy from the US, but industry experts claim that the US cannot meet the global deficit.
“We have plenty,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. However, data from the US government show that this is not the case. Approximately half a million barrels of aviation fuel are exported daily from the Strait of Hormuz, mainly to Europe and some to Asia and Africa, according to data from the ship monitoring service Kpler, cited by Reuters.
However, just yesterday, Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary warned that there could be a problem with the supply of aviation fuel in Europe if the war in the Middle East continues.
Meanwhile, total US jet fuel exports averaged 219,000 barrels per day last year, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy.
“It is very, very, very unlikely that the U.S. will be able to replace the fuel supply in the Strait of Hormuz,” said Kpler analyst Matt Smith.
The United States is the world’s leading consumer of jet fuel, and the majority of it is consumed domestically, according to EIA data.
Last week, refineries and fuel blending companies produced 1.97 million barrels of jet fuel per day, slightly higher than the demand of 1.79 million barrels per day, according to the EIA.
“Even if the US had an abundance of aviation fuel, they have many airlines,” Mr. Smith said.
Furthermore, the majority of jet fuel production in the US is concentrated on the US Gulf Coast, and the major demand centers along the country’s East and West Coasts have historically relied on imports to meet their needs.
The West Coast, in particular, will need a larger fuel supply from the US Gulf Coast, as many of its typical suppliers in Asia are among those most affected by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Asian refineries were forced to reduce production and ban exports, forcing California to seek alternative suppliers.
Of course, the US exports more quantities of all fuels, including aviation fuel, to the global markets, as it is the only major fuel producer that has not been directly affected by the war.
Fuel prices for aircraft have increased sharply in the United States since the start of the war with Iran, but to a lesser extent than in other markets directly affected by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which encourages an increase in exports from the country, according to Gulf Oil’s chief energy advisor, Tom Kloza.
