Aviation Fuel Price May Increase

Hurricane Harvey has diminished into a tropical depression and left the U.S. Gulf Coast, but its effect on the national jet-A fuel market could last for three to four weeks, according to Joel Hirst, vice president of sales for Avfuel. “The good news is that many companies like Avfuel have preparedness plans to cover natural disasters and many of our partners do as well,” he said. “While the storm closed several refineries and pipelines, which led to problems, they were able to do controlled closes. This will allow them start back up in a much quicker fashion. We will start to see some refineries and critical pipeline segments reopen over the weekend.” Ainonline.com reports that Hirst said fuel deliveries in some areas affected by the storm or pipeline shutdowns have been delayed as truck run distances from terminals have increased to compensate for the closures and long tanker truck loading lines have formed at some terminals. And while jet-A prices have increased in some locations by up to 20 cents per gallon and likely will continue to increase rapidly, with the exception of some isolated locations within the storm impact area, airports are not running out of fuel, but fuel deliveries are being delayed as fuel needs to be trucked in from longer distances. “The supply network just expands to the next level until the primary ones come back on line,” he said. “Anytime you have an event like this, prices do move up, but when things do restore over the next three to four weeks and things get caught back up again, it will correct itself.