Every day there are more reports of physical-economic fallout from the Iran war. According to Financial Times, “Brussels is ready to require jet fuel stocks to be shared across the EU … echoing pandemic-era efforts to share vaccine supplies.” According to EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen: “We are moving from a crisis that has so far been primarily a crisis of too high prices. Now, we’re moving towards a crisis of supply. This we will see first and primarily on jet fuels. We are approaching this very rapidly,” Jørgensen told the FT. He said the measures could include “possible sharing and redistribution of jet fuels across member states.”
FT adds: “The head of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol said earlier this week that Europe had six weeks of jet fuel remaining. Its kerosene supplies are disproportionately sourced from the Middle East and have been heavily disrupted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.” They report that some European airlines are already cancelling some flights, “with Lufthansa and KLM among airline groups to say that they are reducing their schedule in response to the lack of supplies.” Some 75% of European jet fuel is imported from Southwest Asia.
