{"id":550973,"date":"2026-06-24T01:09:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T01:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/550973\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T01:09:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T01:09:40","slug":"how-europe-solved-the-jet-fuel-crisis-and-saved-your-summer-holidays-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/550973\/","title":{"rendered":"How Europe solved the jet fuel crisis and saved your summer holidays \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost as soon as the US and Israel started bombing Iran<\/a> late in February, Paco Quintana knew what it could mean for Europe\u2019s summer holidays. Refineries in the Middle East usually supply a quarter of the continent\u2019s jet fuel during the peak travel season, but with export routes from the Gulf cut off, this year it would have to come from elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Quintana, 55, who runs BP\u2019s Castell\u00f3n refinery<\/a> on Spain\u2019s east coast, gathered his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started to think OK, this is coming to us. Obviously, at some point, we would need to switch to max jet,\u201d he said, explaining that the 110,000-barrel-a-day facility, which mainly supplies Spain and the Balearic Islands, needed to be rapidly reconfigured to maximise jet fuel production.<\/p>\n

The same calculation was being made in other European countries that rely heavily on tourism but whose refining capabilities<\/a> have been weakened by years of closures and underinvestment. The continent has just over 70 oil refineries, compared with more than 130 in the US and about 300 across Asia. <\/p>\n

As airlines warned about running out of fuel, helping prices to double, the sector moved into overdrive. In March, refineries in the region increased jet fuel production by 22 per cent from a year earlier to a record 1.3mn barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).<\/p>\n

That cut the amount that Europe needed to import from overseas by more than half, the global energy watchdog said, although the region still leans heavily on flows of jet fuel from the US.<\/p>\n

\"\"Will a Middle East peace deal make any difference to inflation? <\/p>\n

\u201cEuropean refining played a vital role,\u201d said Alan Gelder, vice-president of refining at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. Refineries processed more crude despite having less capacity than last year as they \u201cran hard and undertook less maintenance\u201d, he added. But reconfiguring refineries and producing different types of products is not a straightforward process.<\/p>\n

Refineries turn barrels of crude into usable fuels by heating it in steel columns, where lighter fractions rise and heavier ones remain lower down, allowing them to draw off streams of molecules that can be made into products including petrol, diesel, shipping or aviation fuel.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0What happens Ireland\u2019s petrol and diesel prices and energy costs after US-Iran peace deal?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

They also have \u201ccracking\u201d units that can split heavier molecules into lighter ones, giving them more flexibility to tweak their product mix when market prices move.<\/p>\n

But Quintana stressed that maximising jet fuel production was not simply turning a dial. Engineers examined pipelines, reactors and drums, and then used computer simulators to see if the plant could be safely changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started to say: OK, can we use that kit in another shape and form?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Within about a week, tests started to show a greater share of jet fuel emerging. But the engineers also needed to change conditions inside the reactors, including temperature, pressure, catalysts and hydrogen, to get different results. And they needed a different selection of crude.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe magic happens when we blend the crudes,\u201d Quintana told the FT.<\/p>\n

The refinery then worked with BP\u2019s trading teams in London to secure the correct feedstocks, with phone calls back and forth several times a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were on the phone saying: how are you doing, do you think you can unlock a limitation?\u201d Quintana said. \u201cWe managed to do it with the crudes that we had, and right after, they started to bring other types of grades that had more kero [jet fuel] yield.\u201d<\/p>\n

The effort lifted Castell\u00f3n\u2019s jet fuel production by about 30 per cent, according to BP.<\/p>\n

Eugene Lindell, an analyst at energy advisory company FGE NexantECA, said it was a \u201cHerculean feat\u201d that suggested the Spanish refinery had managed to increase its jet fuel yield by far more than US rivals.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Energy price shock to squeeze Irish wage growth this year, says Central BankOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Dire predictions of Europe running out of jet fuel within weeks have not materialised and pressure on supplies has rapidly subsided. Today, jet fuel premiums over diesel are below pre-war levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has become \u2018well-positioned\u2019 in the market,\u201d said Amaar Khan, head of European jet fuel pricing at Argus Media, noting that summer demand could be met even though physical supplies from the Middle East were unlikely to arrive before late July.<\/p>\n

BP\u2019s wider refining system has also been running harder, processing 1.5mn barrels of crude a day in the first three months of 2026, its highest quarterly level in four years.<\/p>\n

Brenda Stout, the energy major\u2019s head of refining, said the crisis showed how the industry had changed from when refineries were more static. <\/p>\n

\u201cTen to 20 years ago, it was designed around a fixed crude source, and what you would be producing was tailored to the market less dynamically,\u201d she said. Refiners now have to be more flexible in both the crude they buy and the products they make.<\/p>\n

Quintana compared this year\u2019s crisis with the Covid-19 pandemic, when demand for jet fuel collapsed and Castell\u00f3n had to curb production.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was also another moment of uncharted territory, where we had to try to understand the limits and push the boundaries in a way that we think is safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The plant is still maximising jet fuel production, even though prices have fallen back and some traders believe the worst has passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tension around it is still there, but it\u2019s not as high,\u201d Quintana said. \u201cWe\u2019re keeping the momentum going.\u201d \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost as soon as the US and Israel started bombing Iran late in February, Paco Quintana knew what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[39086,79,18,15912,19,17,45036],"class_list":["post-550973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-bp","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-energy-crisis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel-iran-conflict"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116802419295165999","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}