Once again Canada is experiencing a shortage of 100LL Avgas. We first became aware when Pitt Meadows-based fuel supplier Aero Club of British Columbia sent out a notice to customers and stakeholders on July 18 that they had run out of Avgas shortly after noon that day. Other airports around the Lower Mainland also reported running dry.
Early reports were that the issue was due to lack of proper certification of a tank at Imperial Oil’s refinery in Edmonton, Canada’s only supplier of 100LL, and that deliveries would resume by Wednesday (July 24). However, as of Friday afternoon (July 26), the shortage continues and has spread across the country.
“The situation is Canada-wide now,” COPA CEO Mark van Berkel told Canadian Aviator on the ground at AirVenture in Oshkosh Friday afternoon. “There has been no clear explanation forthcoming from Imperial Oil,” he added.
Boundary Bay’s Pacific Flying Club on B.C.’s Lower Mainland attributed the cause of the shortage to a different scenario. The club wrote on its website, “Esso’s quality control team discovered inconsistencies in the batch, leading to fuel performance and safety concerns. As a precautionary measure, the affected batch was withheld from the market, significantly reducing the available supply.”
Meanwhile, there appears to be some fuel being produced as several airports are now reporting that Avgas is available but in limited quantities and that rationing policies are in place, typically limiting sales to 50 litres a day and only to aircraft based at the seller’s airport; transient aircraft weren’t being refuelled. Local flight schools typically are being sold up to 50 litres after each training flight, and twin-engine aircraft 50 litres per side. Cross-country training flights were cancelled.
“We’re hearing that distributors are reserving a significant amount for Avgas-consuming firefighting aircraft,” van Berkel said. “We also heard that U.S.-based refiners are refusing to sell product for export to Canada.”
The shortage has hit British Columbia’s fly-in tourism industry particularly hard. The province has a large number of high-end fly-in ranches and coastal fishing lodges that depend on Avgas-powered aircraft to bring in high-spending tourists.
“The B.C. Aviation Council is particularly concerned about two activities that appear shut down by the Avgas shortages,” Dave Frank, BCAC’s executive director, told Aviator. “First is that our province is effectively closed to general aviation tourism, one of the highest revenue-per-tourist revenue generators, especially in rural and remote communities. Second, if there were a disaster like an earthquake, the volunteer private aircraft fleet would not be able to effectively provide emergency response.” A similar impact on Ontario’s and Quebec’s back-country tourism industry is likely as well.
Aviator spoke with several Canadian pilots on the ground in Oshkosh who were about to head home the following morning. None were aware of the fuel-shortage situation north of the border. Some will now modify their routing to minimize their fuel requirement in Canada for the trip home.