Japan Fuji Oil sees FY2020-21 jet fuel sales to JAL at 80% of year ago

Tokyo — Japanese refiner Fuji Oil expects its jet fuel sales to Japan Airlines in the first half of the current 2020-2021 fiscal year (April-March) to be around half the volume it sold during the same period a year ago, while its full fiscal year sales is expected to recover to around 80% of what it had sold to the airline in the previous year, a company official told S&P Global Platts Aug. 21.

Fuji Oil's jet fuel sales to JAL is starting to recover from around the July-September quarter, having fallen to about one-third of the year-ago level in the April-June quarter, the official said.

Fuji Oil, which sells jet fuel from its sole 143,000 b/d Sodegaura refinery in Tokyo Bay to JAL as well as to refiners Idemitsu Kosan and ENEOS, expects its kerosene/jet fuel sales to be about 1.049 million kiloliters, or 6.60 million barrels, for fiscal year 2020-21.

Fuji Oil's jet fuel sales to JAL has been increasing as the airline has raised its month-on-month jet fuel loadings from June after it had gradually resumed domestic flights, following Japan's lifting of state of emergency measures imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic on May 25.

In the wake of the recent uptick in the number of coronavirus cases in Japan, JAL's jet fuel loadings would be lower than expected in August and September due mainly to fewer domestic flights, a company official told Platts on Aug. 20.

JAL plans to load 25% more jet fuel in August from July, down from the 37% month-on-month rise it had expected on July 17, the company official said. It also expects its jet fuel loading volumes in September to be 21% lower than in August, a steeper drop than the 12% forecast on July 17.