Europe's refineries in 'max jet mode' as Middle East imports dwindle: Shell official

As Europe faces a looming jet fuel shortage due to the war in the Middle East, all refineries on the continent are already maxing out their production to serve the aviation market, the president of Shell's Netherlands arm said April 22.

Shell's own giant refinery in Rotterdam can boost its jet fuel production "to a limited degree," said Frans Everts, president-director of Shell Nederland, adding that the oil major would rely on its robust trading arm to ensure its customers remain supplied.

"Very clearly, every refinery in Europe is on what we call max jet mode," he said at a press briefing in Rotterdam. "You can tweak [refinery operations], depending on market circumstances ... and according to our outlook and your market data that you have through our trading colleagues, yes, we set the refinery to make as much one thing versus another. But, these degrees are small, a few percentages here or there."

The 404,000 b/d Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam (formerly Pernis) is Europe's largest refinery.

It sits in a market that is heavily reliant on jet fuel supplies from the Middle East and showing signs of a coming squeeze, with airlines warning of flight cancellations, while fares rise. Lufthansa on April 22 announced it was cancelling 20,000 flights from its schedule through October, while the EU has said it will launch a jet fuel supply tracking system to monitor inventories across the bloc.

Jet fuel and kerosene stocks in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub fell to their lowest level since April 2020, data from Insights Global showed April 16. Stocks were recorded at 597,000 metric tons, falling 7% on the week and 10% on the year. The last time stocks were lower was April 2, 2020, at 572,000 mt.

In the absence of supplies from the Middle East, Europe has increasingly turned to imports from the US Gulf Coast.

"Jet is the product that in Europe is most in demand. Diesel is probably second," Everts said.

Everts, who began his career at Shell as an oil trader, said the company's Rotterdam refining complex had also been forced to find alternatives to the Middle East crudes it had typically processed.

"We're looking at different sources," he said. "Now, we are blessed, I would say, with a very strong trading capability globally. And therefore, our ability to spot opportunities to make trades to swap things that we have with somebody else is probably an extreme advantage in situations like this."

In its Q1 operational update on April 8, Shell said it expected its earnings from trading and optimization in its chemicals and products business to be "significantly higher" quarter on quarter. Low commodity prices in 2025 had dented its profits, along with those of other oil companies.

"This facility, we don't necessarily make just finished products," Everts said of the Rotterdam refinery. "We can also go one level deeper and make components. And sometimes it's better, it creates more value to sell particular components because somebody else can then do something with that."