Bunkering and marine fuels in Singapore

Singapore is the world's largest bunkering port, and this is the sector's most glaring earlier omission. Marine-fuel sales hit a record 56.2 million tonnes in 2025 (up from 54.5 million in 2024) — roughly a fifth of global bunker volume — supplied by a licensed, tightly regulated ecosystem. The Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) licenses every participant: it currently lists around 39 bunker suppliers plus a separate register of bunker craft (barge) operators, surveyors and surveying companies, and Singapore pioneered the global mandate for mass flow meters (MFM) on custody transfer. The buyer — a shipowner or charterer — reads a bunker player on its MPA licence class (physical supplier versus craft operator), fleet (owned bunker tankers, dual-fuel/hybrid vessels), fuel range (conventional VLSFO/HSFO/MGO plus the fast-growing alternatives), and compliance record (MFM, SS 648 biofuel code, SIRE inspections). The structural story is decarbonisation: LNG bunkering reached 571,400 tonnes in 2025 (up 23%), bio-blended sales hit 1.36 million tonnes, and the MPA is issuing three five-year methanol bunkering licences from 2026.

The field leads with homegrown Singapore-HQ suppliers and craft operators. Equatorial Marine Fuel — Singapore's No. 1 supplier by volume in recent years, at roughly 5 million tonnes a year across ~30 tankers — anchors the physical-supply tier alongside Global Energy Trading (building Singapore's first dedicated methanol bunker vessel), Consort Bunkers, Kenoil, Golden Island (the first fully digital supplier) and Bunker House. On the craft side, Hong Lam Marine pioneered MFM custody transfer and performed a world-first ship-to-ship green-methanol bunkering, while Sinanju / V-Bunkers (now Vitol-owned) and Hai Soon round out the SG-operated fleet base. FueLNG — a Shell–Seatrium joint venture — is Singapore's principal LNG bunkering operator, past its 800th STS operation. The global majors (PetroChina, Sinopec, TFG Marine, Vitol, BP, Chevron, Shell, ExxonMobil, SK, Maersk) supply through their MPA-licensed Singapore arms, marked foreign-HQ.