The head of aviation at Shell said on that the demand for aviation fuel will reach its pre-pandemic levels of 300 million tons annually within the next one to two years, Reuters reported.

While Europe’s consumption has recovered to more than 80% and is on track for full recovery in the following year, demand in the United States has returned to 2019 levels, according to Shell Aviation President Jan Toschka.

“Asia has been a bit more of a bumpy road with markets opening up and closing down but mostly we expect Asia in particular, in the next year, to come back, but it might take another year before we see the full potential of the market,” he said.

However, jet fuel supplies are becoming scarcer in Europe with the European Union’s sanctions on Russian oil products kicking in on Feb. 5, causing the region to import more fuel from the U.S., China, India and the Middle East.

“The market needs to buy from refineries further away … shipping and rail and all kinds of distribution are under more stress now with this new kind of routing (of trade),” Toschka said.

According to Toschka, Shell is thinking about constructing two more sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) facilities in the US as it strives to have 10% of its global jet sales come from renewable fuel by 2030.

By the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023, Shell may also make a final investment decision for its Singapore SAF project, which is anticipated to begin production in 2026 and manufacture up to 500,000 tonnes of SAF in the city-state.

According to Toschka, the industry would need to invest $50 billion annually and construct 5,000 SAF plants in order to reach net zero goals by 2050.