Nigeria's jet fuel conundrum: Scarcity at home, abundance abroad

For the past two months. Nigeria has emerged as Europe's largest supplier of jet fuel , overtaking the United States.

The 650,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) mega refinery owned by Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, outside Lagos has evolved into an increasingly important source of fuel for the continent following supply disruptions caused by the Iran war.

During last year's peak summer months, the majority of these supplies still originated from the Middle East.

But since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year, Europe has been relying on imports of roughly 700,000 bpd in total to meet the present demands of the aviation industry, according to the private, global trade intelligence business Kpler.

In fact, back in April, the head of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol expressed concern that at the time Europe only had "maybe six weeks or so" of jet fuel supplies remaining.

Less than two months later, four airports in northern Italy — Bologna, Venice, Treviso and Milan's Linate — even introduced temporary restrictions on jet fuel use, imposing a ceiling of 2,000 liters per aircraft for short-haul journeys, according to local media, while giving priority to medical and long-haul flights.

Europe has, in the meantime, been able to absorb the shock of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by diversifying its resources and boosting supplies from countries like Nigeria — but at what cost?

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