Aviation-Fuel Offtake Board Challenger

The mandate

Directors repeatedly face whether to secure scarce future sustainable-aviation-fuel volume now or wait for pathways, projects and accounting regimes to mature. Proposed agreements combine physical delivery, certificates, book-and-claim claims, price floors, public support and customer premiums that do not carry the same counterparty or timing risk. The adviser’s standing question is how much commitment creates useful supply without concentrating the airline in unproven production, fragile feedstock or claims it cannot defend.

The cadence is four days a month: one portfolio-evidence review, one transaction-structure challenge, chair preparation and either committee attendance or a supplier-site visit. Five committee meetings and four refinery, project or airport visits are included. Time-sensitive term-sheet questions receive a response within forty-eight hours, while negotiation, technical qualification, sustainability certification, hedge execution and public claims remain the responsibility of executives and appointed experts.

The term lasts ten months through the next fuel-procurement and fleet-planning cycle. A single two-month extension may be approved if a named project reaches final investment decision after the original term and conflicts are refreshed. The adviser will leave an offtake decision history, pathway exposure map, evidence gates and monitoring calendar. The independent chair determines renewal after reviewing whether management has internalised the challenge rather than seeking continuous transaction support.

The adviser has no line authority, executive responsibility, transaction mandate or committee vote. Management negotiates; qualified teams approve fuel, accounting and sustainability treatment; directors sanction material commitments. The adviser may challenge assumptions, recommend portfolio caps, request downside cases and advise against signing, but cannot bind the airline, validate lifecycle emissions, recognise a certificate, hedge fuel, approve a supplier or represent any environmental claim.

Relationships involving fuel producers, feedstock suppliers, airlines, airports, traders, certificate registries, technology licensors, project financiers, governments or transaction advisers require disclosure. A live role for a proposed counterparty normally creates recusal. Other non-conflicting work is permitted within the time envelope. Fees are independent of volume signed, project financing, certificate generation, emissions claim, customer premium, fuel price or selection of any pathway or supplier.

Why the board wants this voice

Procurement sees scarcity, sustainability sees commitments and treasury sees price exposure, but no internal leader is independent of the portfolio decision they advocate. Novel pathways create technical and project risks unlike conventional spot or term fuel buying. The board wants someone who has governed long-dated commodity and infrastructure commitments and can force every claimed benefit back to deliverable volume, enforceable rights and credible accounting.

What you will own

• Press management to separate physical fuel, environmental attribute, certificate, subsidy and customer-premium value in each proposal.
• Test production pathways against feedstock, energy, technology, commissioning, logistics, airport and qualification dependencies.
• Challenge delivery remedies, price formulas, volume flex, change-in-law and project-delay protections under downside scenarios.
• Examine portfolio concentration by producer, pathway, geography, feedstock, certificate regime and expected delivery year.
• Shape evidence gates for term sheet, conditional commitment, final contract, project sanction and public claim.
• Maintain independent records of assumptions, conflicts, dissent, expired evidence and triggers for revisiting exposure limits.
• Leave the committee a repeatable offtake review linked to fleet demand, compliance need and realistic customer recovery.

Candidate qualifications

• Has governed long-dated aviation-fuel, renewable-fuel, commodity or energy-infrastructure offtakes at board level.
• Can evidence a commitment staged or rejected because project or certificate assumptions did not support contracted value.
• Understands production pathways, feedstock risk, airport logistics, environmental attributes, price structures and delivery remedies.
• Has challenged sustainability and procurement narratives without making technical certification or accounting judgments.
• Can compare physical, certificate and book-and-claim positions without double counting supply or environmental value.
• Is independent of relevant producers, traders, airlines, registries, financiers, licensors and transaction advisers.

Non-negotiables

• Can attend five committee meetings and complete four controlled supplier, refinery or airport evidence visits.
• Will not certify fuel, lifecycle emissions, environmental attributes, accounting or regulatory compliance through this role.
• Brings direct offtake and project-risk governance; generic airline strategy or sustainability advocacy is insufficient.
• Will disclose producer, trader, registry, lender and adviser relationships before reviewing live proposals.

1. 49 words maximum. Which project assumption most often makes a long-dated low-carbon fuel offtake look safer than it is?
2. 49 words maximum. What producer, trader, registry, airline or financier commitments would this board need disclosed?
3. 49 words maximum. When have you recommended a smaller conditional volume despite expected future scarcity?