Alkagesta featured in The National: Cold War pipeline keeps European jet fuel flowing

Malta-based commodity trading house Alkagesta has been featured by The National in a report on how a Cold War-era pipeline network is helping keep European aircraft fuelled through the Gulf supply shock. The article, by Tariq Tahir, was published on 5 June 2026 and can be read in full at The National.

According to the report, Alkagesta joined the select group of companies granted access to the Nato Central European Pipeline System (Ceps) only days before the Iran war broke out. The 5,000km system links airfields, refineries, depots and ports, was built in the 1950s to supply Nato forces, and today carries mostly jet fuel to military and commercial transport hubs. The company set out its own account of the milestone in its jet fuel supply update, part of the wider trading franchise it operates from Malta.

The backdrop is the disruption that followed co-ordinated US-Israeli air strikes on Iran on 28 February and Tehran's retaliation, after which traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — the route for a fifth of the world's oil — came to a halt. Gulf jet fuel exports fell by around 80 per cent in March as part of wider disruption that removed more than 10 million barrels per day from global supply. Alkagesta tracked the sequence in its Hormuz supply shock analysis and in its European energy market outlook on the Hormuz closure.

Asad Huseynov, the company's managing director of investments and assets, told The National that Alkagesta had "managed to turn the risk into opportunities", speaking on the sidelines of the S&P Global Energy Middle East Petroleum and Gas Conference in London. He described an airline approaching the company after its existing supplier said it was short of jet fuel, and said the required volume was sourced. He added that Alkagesta holds contracts with two holiday airline companies, which he declined to name.

Access to Ceps followed what Huseynov called a "lengthy process", including a detailed business plan, because only a limited number of new customers can be admitted each year. Applicants must justify the tonnage they intend to move through each entry point and the airports they intend to serve. That kind of operational and counterparty discipline is described in the company's risk management framework and its compliance policies.

The report says Alkagesta buys jet fuel from refinery suppliers in north-west Europe including Exxon, Vitol and Petroineos, relationships it has held for many years, with the barrels then moved through the pipeline to customers at airports in Brussels, Frankfurt and elsewhere in Germany. Service agreements with the airports cover storage in tank farms and the companies that pump fuel into aircraft. Financing arrangements behind flows of that size sit within the company's trade finance activity.

Alkagesta expects to trade 100,000 tonnes of jet fuel this year and, according to Huseynov, plans to increase annual jet fuel sales several times over, describing the entry into the market as "a really good decision". The company sees the European market remaining steady even as the continent moves towards renewable energy — a view consistent with its assessment of the jet fuel market alongside IATA data and its interview on aviation fuel, ULSFO and biofuels. Chief executive Orkhan Rustamov discussed the same disruption in comments on jet fuel market dislocation.

The National notes that higher regional refinery output, stock draws and imports from the US and Nigeria have helped offset lost Middle Eastern supply, easing earlier fears of European jet fuel shortages. Air France-KLM said its jet fuel supplies are secure for the summer, Lufthansa reported "no signs" of supply risk at its six European hubs of Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Brussels and Rome, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said supply appears secure until September, and Jet2 said it does not expect disruption to its summer schedule.

Alkagesta trades petroleum products, fertilizers, biofuels and steel across more than 48 countries. Further background on its activities is available through its overview of what it does and its media centre.