Jet Fuel Shortage Could Impact Firefighting Abilities During Record-Breaking Heat Waves

A jet fuel shortage could impact firefighting abilities during record-breaking heat waves hitting the nation.

Since demand for jet fuel decreased amid the pandemic, it negatively impacted the jet fuel supply chain, said airport officials, aviation supply companies and jet fuel transport companies, according to the Associated Press. Each year, hundreds of planes and helicopters requiring jet fuel are needed to combat deadly wildfires. The demand has increased as the Western U.S. is in the midst of its wildfire season.

"The supply chain right now is probably the most fragile I've ever seen in my years of experience," Jeff Cyphers of Humboldt Pacific LCC in California told the Associated Press.

Cyphers said alongside there being not enough jet fuel, there are not enough drivers to deliver the fuel that is available. Jet fuel supplies in 2020 decreased by 38 percent compared to 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Although the fuel supplied has since increased by 26 percent since January, it is lower than what was supplied in 2019.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

Airport officials facing jet fuel shortages are concerned they'll have to wave off planes and helicopters that drop fire retardants during what could be a ferocious wildfire season, potentially endangering surrounding communities.

Sporadic shortages at some tanker bases in Oregon and Utah have already been reported. The worry is that multiple bases could go dry simultaneously during what is shaping up to be a very busy wildfire season in the U.S. West. Tanker bases in Arizona, where many large fires are burning, have also had jet fuel supply issues in the last month.

"We haven't run into that before," said Jessica Gardetto, a National Interagency Fire Center spokeswoman in Boise, Idaho, and a former wildland firefighter. "It's a scary thought, with all the shortages going on right now."

The supply has yet to bounce back in the Western U.S. even as the economy zooms ahead and more passengers flock to airports for long-delayed trips.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration's Weekly Petroleum Status Report for July 2 shows demand at 78 percent of 2019 levels. That's up from 44 percent of 2019 levels for the same time period in 2020 when the pandemic had taken hold.

Overall, the energy administration said, jet fuel inventories in the U.S. are at or above the five-year average, except in the Rocky Mountains, where they are 1 percent below. That appears to point to the supply chain as the potential problem, various industry officials said.

"COVID, it lulled everybody to sleep," said Mark Haynes, vice president of sales for Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Avfuel Corporation, which supplies jet fuel across the U.S., including to about half of the nation's 44 air tanker bases operated by the U.S. Forest Service or U.S. Bureau of Land Management in western states. Some states also maintain tanker bases.

"Our business went to about zero," Haynes said. "A lot of trucking companies had to lay off (jet fuel) drivers. What happened with the opening up of the U.S., demand for leisure travel has boomed."

Chris Kunkle is vice president of operations for the Central Coast Jet Center in Santa Maria, Calif. It's a private airport known as a fixed-based operator that provides services for private jets, such as refueling. It also serves as a Forest Service air tanker base, and is large enough for DC-10 air tankers.

"In the blink of an eye, we can have a fire here within our response area that can bring in one to three DC-10s and a bunch of variable-sized air tankers," he said. "We can go from a couple thousand gallons a day to 50,000 to 60,000 gallons."

He said he likes to keep 60,000 gallons at the airport but is having trouble with limited deliveries. He fears running out if a large fire breaks out in the area.

Decisions on where the fuel goes can be difficult. Commercial jet travel can be a huge economic driver in many communities. Air ambulances also need fuel. Industry officials said problems at large commercial carriers this year appear to have more to do with worker and pilot shortages than lack of jet fuel.

Cyphers said he's expanding the company's fleet of 20 jet fuel tanker trucks to transport fuel to West Coast states and, during the wildfire season, Idaho, Montana and Utah.

Cyphers has been in the industry since 1986.

Most larger airports such as those in Denver, Seattle and Boise are supplied by pipeline. But many smaller, outlying airports such as those in Aspen, Colorado, and Jackson, Wyoming, and Hailey, Idaho, near the resort town of Sun Valley, rely on jet fuel delivery by truck. So do many of the airports with tanker bases, some of them hundreds of miles away from jet fuel refineries or pipelines.

Cyphers said his company has even been trucking jet fuel to airports supplied by pipeline because they hadn't received their full allocation of jet fuel.

Hundreds of aircraft are used to fight wildfires each year. Most of the nation's large retardant bombers are jets. Turboprop retardant bombers also use jet fuel. They lay down strips of red fire retardant ahead of approaching flames in support of ground crews who are more likely to hold a fire line after a retardant bomber has made a drop.

Most firefighting helicopters also use jet fuel.

It's not clear if jet fuel supplies and delivery systems can be bolstered in time for this wildfire season to avoid potential problems keeping firefighting aircraft aloft if multiple large fires break out around the West.

"Not this year," predicted Cyphers, from the trucking company. "I could be wrong, but I don't foresee them being able to bridge that gap."