The CEO of French energy and petroleum company TotalEnergies said he expected the European Union (EU)’s mandate on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to be dropped in the future, Reuters reported.
Speaking on 21 January at a World Economic Forum panel on clean fuels, Patrick Pouyanne was quoted as saying he expected the EU to water down its mandate to incorporate SAF in a similar way the bloc had decided to drop a proposed ban on new combustion engine cars from 2035.
Last year, the EU mandated that 2% of jet fuel available at its airports needed to be SAF, a requirement that would rise to 6% in 2030 and 20% in 2035.
“All the airline companies are fighting the 6% SAF mandate ... I will make a bet today that what happened to the car regulation will happen to the SAF regulation in Europe,” Pouyanne said.
Although TotalEnergies produced SAF at several refineries and had plans to expand, it had delayed investments to increase capacity after finding that its clients would not be willing to buy more than the volume needed to satisfy EU rules, he added.
SAF was three to four times more expensive than jet fuel refined from oil but Pouyanne rejected the claim made by airline companies that their lack of SAF uptake was due to insufficient volumes being produced, Reuters wrote.
“I will be able to provide 10% of SAF to the airline companies in Europe by 2030, but...everybody is dreaming they can have these biofuels at the same price as (jet fuel made from) oil, but it’s not true,” Pouyanne said.
The CEO added that he was likely to reduce investments in low-carbon fuels due to regulatory uncertainty.
Active in nearly 120 countries, TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity.
