Swiss aviation fuel reserves below mandatory levels

Aviation fuel reserves are at 72 days instead of the mandatory 90 days Keystone-SDA

Swiss fuel reserves lag below regulatory limits in the midst of an oil supply squeeze caused by the Middle East conflict.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The target for the range of compulsory stocks of aviation petrol is three months, or 90 days, of average sales over the last three years at Swiss airports (excluding Basel).

A spokesperson for the Federal Office for National Economic Supply (FONES) told Keystone-SDA news agency that aviation fuel reserves would currently last 72 days “or around two and a half months”.

+ Switzerland expects bumper tax from oil traders

The sharp increase in the sale of aviation fuel after the Covid pandemic means that large quantities of aviation petrol have to be locked away in compulsory storage.

How much fuel needs to be stored is determined on the basis of average consumption. The current average value for the compulsory stockpile quantity to be placed in storage is based on the average consumption for the three years 2022, 2023 and 2024. But this has increased sharply from 2024 until the outbreak of war.

+ Middle East conflict lands Switzerland with hefty energy bill

This means that stocks would have to be built up in addition to the regular supply. This could be delayed due to impending shortages and strong price fluctuations, the spokesperson continued.

In addition, market shifts led to delayed adjustments by importers. New importers would normally have three years to fulfil their compulsory stockholding share.

Tamedia newspapers had initially reported that stocks should actually be replenished to such an extent that Swiss airports could be supplied for three months.

Adapted from German by AI/mga

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail]