Vitol Bunkers supplies around half of Singapore's 2022 marine biofuel sales

Vitol Bunkers, Vitol's Singapore bunker operations company, accounted for half of the marine biofuel blend sales and operations in Singapore so far in 2022, the company spokesperson said in a statement to S&P Global Commodity Insights.

"With Vitol owned refineries, terminals & barges, it allows us to provide not only conventional fuels but also bio marine fuels from Singapore and other key locations," he said Oct. 8.

Singapore, the world's largest bunkering port, is embracing a multi-fuel bunkering future, with biofuels as a marine fuel set to play a key role, to expedite international shipping's sustainability goals.

In Singapore around 70,000 mt of biofuel have been supplied to ocean-going vessels across more than 40 biofuel bunkering operations to date, Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport Chee Hong Tat said at the opening address of SIBCON 2022 in Singapore Oct. 5.

To put things in perspective, Singapore total LNG marine fuel sales in 2021 stood at 50,000 mt, data from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, or MPA, showed. Singapore's LNG bunker sales volume for 2022 are not available yet.

"We expect bio marine fuels to be part of 'available right now' decarbonization solution on a life cycle basis," the company spokesperson said, adding that it was absolutely key for the industry to focus on "life cycle analysis" of each potential decarbonization solution to ensure that suppliers and customers are investing in right products, infrastructure and technologies.

It was imperative for the maritime industry to apply a well-to-wake approach in GHG emissions accounting rather than a well-to-tank or a tank-to-wake, the company spokesperson said.

Singapore advances biofuels bunkering

The MPA recently said that it had developed a framework to allow licensed bunker suppliers to supply biofuel within the Port of Singapore to support trials conducted by ships.

In a circular issued Oct. 5, coinciding with the SIBCON, the MPA said for the supply of biofuel to support trials on ships, the bunker supplier is encouraged to supply International Sustainability and Carbon Certification, or ISCC, certified biofuel.

All bunker fuels supplied in the Port of Singapore shall meet ISO 8217 standards, being revised to include additional requirements for blends of distillate and residual fuel oils with fatty acid methyl esters or FAME, the MPA said.

In March, V-Bunkers had said in a statement that the company's barges had made several deliveries of bio-fuel blended VLSFO.

More recently, ExxonMobil in a statement Oct. 3 said that Tata NYK Shipping's bulker -- MV Sagar Moti -- had received the bio-based marine fuel oil bunker on Sept. 26, via a ship-to-ship transfer in Singapore waters before heading to the discharge port.

Late September, Hong Kong's OOCL said it had completed a trial voyage with a biofuel bunker supplied by Chevron Singapore, also in the port of Singapore.