Asia/Pacific News
SIBCON 2024: Vitol Sees Singapore Biofuel Demand Roughly Doubling Every Year
Global commodity trading firm Vitol expects to see demand for biofuel bunker blends in Singapore continue to grow at a fast pace.
Singapore's demand for biofuel bunkers has been roughly doubling every year and can be expected to continue in the short term, approaching 1 million mt this year and perhaps 2 million mt in 2025, Mike Muller, CEO of Vitol Asia, told Ship & Bunker on the sidelines of the Sibcon industry event in Singapore on Wednesday.
Singapore saw a total of 523,800 mt of biofuel bunker blend sales in 2023, up from 140,200 mt the previous year. Its January-August 2024 biofuel sales totalled 404,700 mt, heading for 607,050 mt in total in 2024 on an annualised basis, although August's sales were higher than the previous months and a continuation of that trend could see this year's sum reach 1 million mt.
In particular Vitol is seeing an uptick in demand for 100% biofuel as a marine fuel. In February the firm took delivery of its first dedicated biofuel barge in Asia, the 102.6 m Marine Future.
Conventional bunker delivery vessels in Singapore are classed as oil tankers and are restricted to carrying blends containing 25% biofuels or less, but Vitol's new vessel is free of this restriction and can thus carry up to 100% blends.
"An important Asian customer of ours has taken three deliveries of 100% biofuel just in recent weeks here in Singapore," Muller said on Wednesday.
