Updated | Pilots raise suspicion of inflated Enemalta fuel supplies

Adds statement by Enemalta.

Air Malta pilots have expressed concern over the quality of fuel being supplied to the national airline, claiming Enemalta's supplies in the past weeks could have been inflated in quantity through the application of a lower "specific gravity".

MaltaToday has seen documentation showing that Air Malta management and operations are aware of the lower specific gravity in Enemalta's supply of jet fuel. A highly placed source has claimed to this newspaper that this could be leading to higher prices in fuel supplies for the airline.

Specific gravity - in the case of fuel supplied to Air Malta - is the ratio of the weight of fuel supplied by Enemalta in litres to the weight of that volume in kilograms.

In layman's terms, Enemalta supplies its jet fuel to Air Malta in litres, but Air Malta orders the fuel in kilograms. The conversion of litres to kilograms is done using the specific-gravity ratio.

As a source with aviation experience explained to MaltaToday, "Say a pilot has to fly to London Heathrow and needs 12,000kg of fuel. His plane already has 3,000kg so he needs to order 9,000kg. Enemalta will provide that fuel in litres and, to convert that volume into kilograms, he uses an average specific gravity of 0.795. So that means Enemalta supplies 11,320 litres of fuel".

But a pilot who spoke to MaltaToday said fuel supplies in recent weeks were being provided at rates of specific gravity equivalent to 0.75. "It might look like a small amount to an uneducated observer, but consider that

if you need 9,000kg of fuel at that conversion rate, it would mean purchasing 12,000 litres of fuel. When Air Malta purchases €60 million in fuel a year, I think there are millions at stake here".

The same source claimed the average specific gravity for the fuel supplied by Enemalta has historically ranged from 0.79 to 0.805 and only in recent weeks fell to 0.75, sparking concern among pilots about passenger safety.

"Air Malta operations know that since the fuel supplied by Enemalta has a lower specific gravity, the allowable tolerance of 250 litres is being exceeded... they want us to disregard the error and call the engineer. But it's not acceptable".

A request for comment from Enemalta was unanswered at the time of printing.

Enemalta rebuts allegations over quality of fuel supply

Following the publication of the story on MaltaToday on Sunday, Enemalta issued a statement in reaction to the story.

It said the company purchased its fuel according to the international specification "AFQRJOS" checklist.

It said the specification was the mostly used throughout the world.

"The specification states that the density at 15 degrees Celsius can range between 0.775 kg/l to 0.840 kg/l. Fuel purchases by Enemalta always meet the most recent edition of this specification," Enemalta said.

"It is a fact that different batches purchased have different densities, but always within the specified range. The most recent batch purchased had a density of 0.779 kg/l which is within the correct specifications of the fuel."

The state company said it is a physical phenomenon that the density of liquids gets lower as temperature increases, hence the need for the specification to clearly specify that the range quoted applies at the standard temperature of 15 degrees

Celsius.

"The composition of the fuel supplied by Enemalta has not changed and it is fully to specifications. The density quoted by MaltaToday was the density of the fuel at the current ambient temperature (not at 15 degrees celsius, that is, the temperature used in the fiscal transaction), which at the moment is almost twice the standard temperature. When that density is converted to the density at the standard temperature it would show that there is nothing wrong with the density of the fuel," Enemalta said.

The company added there was a "straightforward physical relationship between density and temperature: as temperature increases, density decreases. This is an occurrence which happens throughout the year and surely Airmalta pilots are more than aware of such a phenomenon".

Enemalta reassured that it was standard practice for regular audits to be carried out by the various airlines on the type of fuel sold to them.

"It should be noted that this same fuel is distributed to all other airlines operating from Malta," Enemalta said.