Could airlines in Europe run out of jet fuel? For Marketplace, I'm Novasafo. Good morning. The head of the

International Energy Agency is warning that European airlines may have about six weeks of jet fuel

supply left. Europe gets most of its jet fuel from the Middle East and the Strait of Hermuz

remained shut. Should the situation in Europe get worse,

flight cancellations are likely. Airlines there have fewer options than consumers of other fuels.

Daniel Ackerman explains. The market for jet fuel works differently than for some other fuels,

says Ellen Wald of the Atlantic Council. For example, you can have a ship full of liquefied natural gas.

It's heading for one place and suddenly, you know, the company that owns it gets a better price

from somewhere else and they'll just turn that ship around. Jet fuel, on the other hand,

is rarely purchased on the spot. Airlines will pre-buy, basically, jet fuel.

They agree to a certain amount and price in advance.

So they've got contracts going out months.

And that lock-in makes it hard for airlines to pivot when their suppliers in the Persian

Gulf struggle to deliver.

It's not like there's a whole lot of jet fuel just floating around her sale.

Europe used to make more of its own jet fuel, says Benedict George of Argus Media, but not

anymore.

Europe has quite limited refining capacity these days.

That's partly because Europe's demand for diesel cars has declined in recent years, and

refineries that produced both diesel and jet fuel have closed.

But now, options abroad are dwindling too.

China and South Korea have cut jet fuel exports

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