Gazprom Neft increases jet fuel sales by 16% in H1 2021
Gazpromneft-Aero, the aviation fuel operator of Gazprom Neft, increased jet fuel sales by 16% to 1.6 million tons in H1 2021. The volume of retail sales of ‘into-the-wing’ refuelling grew by 14%, to almost one million tons. The largest Russian international airports, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk saw the biggest increase in the jet fuel sales over the same period.
In H1 2021, Gazpromneft-Aero extended its sales network to 321 airports in 71 countries worldwide and increased the refuelling volume of Chinese Sichuan Airlines, China Eastern and Air China by 63%. The company has also signed a contract with SF Airlines, a Chinese cargo carrier, to refuel its transcontinental flights at Novosibirsk Tolmachevo airport. Gazpromneft-Aero provides refuelling services to the Chinese passenger and cargo flights under the strategic cooperation framework agreement signed with China National Aviation Fuel Group Corp (CNAF, the national supplier of aviation fuel of China).
In 2021, Gazpromneft-Aero integrated its own Smart Fuel blockchain platform at Russian airports, which enables instant transactions between the fuel supplier and airlines and does not require any down payment for the refuelling. The platform is already used at the international airports of Murmansk, Novosibirsk and Saratov. By the end of the year, it is planned to introduce a blockchain platform in ten more Russian airports.
Vladimir Yegorov, Gazpromneft-Aero’s CEO says:
‘Thanks to the recovery of air traffic in Russia and abroad, we have almost returned to the pre-pandemic levels of jet fuel sales. We expect continued growth in sales of high-quality petroleum products to our customers and are also ready to offer new types of aviation fuel to the market. For example, this year the Gazprom Neft’s Oil Refinery in Omsk started the production of the JET A-1 fuel, which is in demand in international aviation. In addition, together with our partners, we plan to start the development of SAF * fuel, which helps reduce the carbon footprint of air transportation.’
* Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is an aviation fuel with a low carbon footprint, produced on the basis of vegetable raw materials. The use of SAF enables the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 80%.
Smart Fuel is the first blockchain solution for instant aviation ‘into-the-wing’ refuelling payments in Russia. The architecture of the blockchain system uses immutable algorithms of smart contracts that store information about the transaction and its participants. Refuelling requests, payment and the exchange of accounting documents are all carried out via applications installed on tablets held by pilots and refuelling operators. It has been registered in the Software Register of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation.