Presence of Biofuels Will Add Complexity to Bunker Market

Traders: specialist training. File Image / Pixabay

Biofuels will eventually be traded with the same ease as conventional bunker fuel, bunker trader Engine X has said.

The fuels might share characteristics with liquid oil-based fuels but from a sustainability and carbon dioxide impact standpoint they are quite different.

"Biofuels combine with emission regulations to amp up complexity in the market," an Engine X spokesperson has told Ship & Bunker.

As the bunker market develops, a fuel's emissions status will become an important selling point which makes proving the fuel's carbon dioxide position to the market equally important. International Sustainability and Carbon Certification can provide that certainty.

As part of the process of gaining ISSC certification, Engine X's traders went through specialist biofuels and sustainability training while the company said that it has built the ISCC system around an existing quality management system.

"That has worked well," the spokesperson said.

Straightforward price competition between biofuels and conventional fuels is unlikely to appear in the market anytime soon.

However, over the medium term, Engine X expects biofuels to begin to make their presence felt under the European Union’s emissions trading scheme and FuelEU Maritime regulation, while demand should come from customer-facing shipping firms that want to include biofuels as part of their energy transition strategy.

Whichever way it works, and with ISSC as part of its offer, Engine X will be able to meet that demand as it develops.

Engine X is a separate entity from Engine Technologies but shares the same platform.