Jet fuel
Overview
Jet fuel market volatility, whether from crude prices, supply issues from refining capacity, or ongoing regulation changes, is a continual risk to your bottom line.
Having a choice in fuel pricing is the best way to mitigate risk and stay on top of market changes. Argus constructs price indexation in a way that is appropriate for each market. By doing so, market participants can align their day-to-day operations, improve management of fuel costs and directly impact their net earnings.
Jet fuel makes up more than 40% of an airline’s total operating expense. The rise in importance of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from government mandates and self-regulations from airlines has a direct implication on these operating costs.
Argus helps the jet fuel market participants to make informed decisions and optimize their strategies with price assessments and information on deals done for conventional jet fuel and SAF, as well as the latest market-moving news, in-depth analysis, supply and demand dynamics, and price forecasts.
Latest jet fuel news
Browse the latest market moving news on the global jet fuel industry.
Asia fuel crunch pushes Australia to US, Europe
Asia fuel crunch pushes Australia to US, Europe
Sydney, 1 April (Argus) — Australia is drawing oil products from the US and Europe to replace cancelled Asian cargoes, as regional export curbs, refinery run cuts and conflict-related disruptions tighten supply and extend voyage times for importers. Six shipments of fuel to Australia had been cancelled or deferred following the outbreak of the US-Iran war as of 22 March, energy minister Chris Bowen said. There have been no further official updates, but several of the lost shipments have been replaced with alternative supplies, he said. Australia imported an average of 79.75 clean product cargoes/month in 2025, including 42.8 gasoil cargoes, 16 gasoline and 7.75 jet fuel shipments, according to Vortexa. The Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Act passed through the Australian parliament yesterday, giving government agency Export Finance Australia new authority to underwrite additional cargoes of critical imports , including fuel and fertilizer, because rising risk premiums are challenging independent importers. A surge in demand from panic buying shortly after the war started has added to the urgency to replace cancelled cargoes as service stations across the country have run out of fuel, especially in regional areas. Australia held 17.1mn bl of gasoil, 10.6mn bl of gasoline and 5.2mn bl of jet fuel on 24 March, equivalent to around 30 days of gasoil and jet fuel consumption and 39 days of gasoline, according to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Long haul flows rise from the US At least eight tankers loaded in the US are currently en route to Australia, vessel tracking data from Vortexa show, comprising six gasoil cargoes and two gasoline shipments. Combined, the vessels are carrying more than 2.3mn bl of diesel and just over 600,000 bl of gasoline ( see table ). Three of the diesel cargoes were loaded at Phillips 66's 105,000 b/d Ferndale refinery on the US west coast, while one gasoline cargo was shipped from ExxonMobil's 612,000 b/d Beaumont refinery on the US Gulf coast and a gasoil cargo was loaded at Valero's 135,000 b/d Meraux refinery in the US Gulf. Two additional cargoes were loaded at ExxonMobil's 522,500 b/d Baton Rouge refinery with Vortexa showing both carrying gasoil, while Kpler data indicates the Medium Range tanker Nord Ventura is carrying jet fuel from the refinery to Australia. Another cargo was loaded at Chevron's 112,000 b/d refinery in Pasadena, Texas. Australia draws gasoil from Europe Australia is set to import a rare gasoil cargo loaded via ship-to-ship transfer in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) region to replace lost Asian supply. The Long Range 2 (LR) tanker STI Solace is transporting 707,100 bl of gasoil to Botany Bay near Sydney for early May arrival, having loaded via ship-to-ship (STS) transfer from the 115,000dwt Oslo Star in the North Sea on 19 March according to Vortexa and Kpler. The STI Solace may have been chartered by ExxonMobil or BP, market sources said. The Oslo Star , also an LR2 tanker, had previously loaded 242,768 bl and 536,647 bl of gasoil from Kuwait's Al Zour and Mina Al Ahmadi refineries. The vessel traversed the strait of Hormuz on 22 February before heading through the Suez Canal toward northeast Europe, where it then discharged 125,796 bl of gasoil into Rotterdam storage prior to making the STS transfer. Asian supply remains constrained Arrivals of gasoil into Australia fell by nearly 1.47mn bl in March compared with January, Vortexa data show ( see graph: Australia middle distillates imports in 2026 ). Gasoline and jet fuel arrivals were down by 0.25mn bl and 1.85mn bl over the same period. April arrivals are on track to be even lower, with a particularly sharp drop expected in gasoil flows. Some late-April loadings could still reach the east coast before month-end, although sailing times from southeast and northeast Asia typically range between 10-20 days. Regional availability has tightened sharply since Beijing instructed refiners to halt exports of transportation fuels and Seoul imposed export caps limiting shipments to 100pc of their 2025 monthly levels. Lower refinery run rates across the Asia-Pacific have further reduced spot supply to Australian buyers. Delivered product prices into Australia have risen since the conflict began, with delivered US Gulf coast gasoil into Japan — an imperfect proxy for Australian delivered pricing from the US Gulf — showing strong gains. Freight costs would add a premium to any US Gulf cargoes bound for Australia. By Tom Woodlock Fuel shipments from US and Europe to Australia bl Product Volume ETA Vessel Loading point Discharge port Diesel 277,500 14-Apr Cape Andiamo Meraux, US Gulf Newcastle, NSW Diesel 175,700 19-Apr Atlantic Sunshine Ferndale, USWC Melbourne, Vic Diesel 293,900 20-Apr Maersk Cyprus Ferndale, USWC Brisbane, Qld Gasoline 300,000 20-Apr CL Zhaoge Beaumont, US Gulf Botany Bay, NSW Gasoline 316,200 24-Apr Hansa Sealancer Pasadena, US Gulf Botany Bay, NSW Diesel 24,600 24-Apr Hansa Sealancer Pasadena, US Gulf Botany Bay, NSW Diesel 323,500 27-Apr Betelgeuse Ferndale, USWC Brisbane, Qld Diesel 707,100 29-Apr STI Solace STS in ARA region Botany Bay, NSW Diesel 300,000 5-May Largo Eagle Baton Rouge, US Gulf Port Hedland, WA or Sydney, NSW Diesel or Jet Fuel 285,000 10-May Nord Ventura Baton Rouge, US Gulf Port Hedland, WA Source- Vortexa Australia middle distillates imports in 2026 Asia fuel crunch pushes Australia to US, Europe Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Kuwait airport hit again in drone attack
Kuwait airport hit again in drone attack
Dubai, 28 March (Argus) — Several drones struck Kuwait International Airport on Saturday, causing "significant" damage to its radar system, authorities said, in the latest attack on a facility repeatedly targeted since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran. No casualties were reported. Authorities said the extent of disruption to airport operations was not yet clear. Kuwait's airspace has faced repeated missile and drone threats during the conflict, prompting temporary closures, reduced flight operations, and persistent delays and cancellations. Saturday's strike came after a drone attack on the airport's fuel depot on 25 March that triggered a fire at the site. Two fuel storage tanks were also targeted on 8 March. The first attack on the airport occurred on 1 March, when Terminal One was struck during a broader wave of drone incidents across Mideast Gulf airports, leaving nine people injured. The repeated attacks come as airspace restrictions across several Mideast Gulf states continue to disrupt one of the world's busiest aviation corridors — a pattern that is likely to weigh on local jet fuel demand. By Rithika Krishna Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Iran’s Hormuz transit fee illegal: GCC
Iran’s Hormuz transit fee illegal: GCC
New York, 26 March (Argus) — Iran charging vessels to transit the strait of Hormuz is illegal and a violation of a UN convention, Gulf Cooperation Council secretary general Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi said today. Iran effectively closed the strait by attacking commercial vessels shortly after the start of military strikes by the US and Israel at the end of February, and is now imposing fees on those wanting to transit the strait, Al-Budaiwi said. "This is a violation of the UN convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)," Al-Budaiwi said. Passage via the strait of Hormuz is dissimilar from Suez Canal and Panama Canal transits, through which Egypt and Panama legally charge fees, because it is a natural international strait rather than a manmade waterway. UNCLOS allows "strait states" such as Iran to designate safe shipping lanes, but stipulates that these states "must not discriminate among foreign ships or, in their application, have the practical effect of denying, hampering or impairing the right of transit passage". Despite this, Tehran is showing signs of plowing forward and formalizing a system to officially collect fees to ensure safe passage via the strait. The GCC — made up of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the UAE — will likely remain vocal in the near term about the imposition of fees by Iran because it threatens to continue to hamper shipments from the Mideast Gulf even after the end of the war. The payment of fees will also boost freight costs from the region and create new arbitrage opportunities for buyers sourcing outside of the Mideast Gulf. By Ross Griffith Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
US-EU clean freight crests $100/t for first time
US-EU clean freight crests $100/t for first time
New York, 23 March (Argus) — Refined oil product shipments carried on medium range (MR) tankers for US Gulf coast-Europe voyages breached $100/t for the first time in nearly 20 years of Argus assessments today on the ongoing supply disruptions in Mideast Gulf exports. Commodity trader BB Energy put the MR tanker Nord Master on subjects for a US Gulf coast-Europe voyage today at Worldscale (WS) 545, or $108.08/t. The rate represents the highest heard for the voyage since Argus began assessing it in 2007, and is 43pc higher than the previous, pre-Iran war high of $75.59/t in April 2022. This means the de facto strait of Hormuz closure by Iran in the wake of US and Israeli strikes has far outstripped the impact on transatlantic freight rates of Russian diesel bans in Europe in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine — when European diesel buyers heavily shifted their demand from the Black Sea toward the US Gulf coast. The disruption to Mideast Gulf exports of crude and refined oil products has rattled freight markets globally, pushing buyers from regions outside of the typical US Gulf coast demand pool to provisionally hire MR tankers from the region, as evidenced on the BB Energy deal with the Nord Master . The trader included South Africa as a discharge option on the voyage at WS685, which is a country that imported 64.4pc of its refined oil product shipments, mostly diesel, from the Mideast Gulf since March 2024. The US Gulf coast accounted for only 1.5pc of the country's imports in that same period, Vortexa data show. Meanwhile, Jones Act waiver deals continued to hit the US Gulf coast spot market on Monday, which actively reduced the available tonnage pool for international shipments and provided further upward pressure on rates. Jet fuel wholesaler Nafco provisionally hired the Lakshmi today for a US Gulf coast-Alaska voyage at $7.75mn lumpsum. Nafco itself is a rarity within the US Gulf coast spot market, with no other spot market deals heard since 2022, suggesting the Jones Act waivers represented a unique trading opportunity for the company. This also demonstrates the waiving of typical Jones Act requirements, that US cabotage vessels be US flagged and US crewed, has introduced entirely new demand into the US Gulf coast spot market at a time when global buyers are already scrambling to secure shipments from the region. By Ross Griffith Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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