Bunker Holding Sets Out Details of New Alternative Fuels Supply Target

Middelfart-based Bunker Holding is the world's largest bunkering firm by volumes. Image Credit: Bunker Holding

Marine fuels conglomerate Bunker Holding has set out more information on its target for minimum alternative fuel supply volumes by 2030.

As Ship & Bunker reported on Wednesday, the firm has set itself the target of 5% of its fuel supply by energy content to be made up of 'very low carbon fuels' by 2030.

The company has now provided more information on how it will define the term.

"Until IMO comes out with an industry-wide accepted definition, we define very low carbon fuels as fuels with a minimum 65 percent life cycle GHG reduction compared to fossil fuels," a company spokesman told Ship & Bunker on Thursday.

This means that biofuel blends with small percentages of biofuel content would not be defined in themselves as being part of that target -- although the biofuel content in the blends would contribute towards it.

"When it comes to B30 blends, it's the 30 percent bio part that counts towards the total volume goal," the company representative added.

Bunker Holding currently sells around 30 million mt/year of marine fuels, meaning in fuel oil terms the firm would need to be selling about 1.5 million mt/year of alternative fuels by 2030, if its sales total remained static. To meet the 5% target by energy content, the actual sales of alternative fuels would probably need to be higher than 1.5 million mt/year in real terms, as the energy density of most alternative fuels is significantly lower than that of fuel oil.

The target aligns Bunker Holding with the revised IMO strategy adopted earlier this year, which sets an ambition for uptake of zero- or near-zero-GHG emission technologies, fuels or energy sources to reach at least 5%, striving for 10%, of total energy demand from international shipping by 2030.

In an interview with Ship & Bunker earlier this year, Bunker Holding CEO Keld Demant suggested demand for conventional bunker fuels may already have peaked.

"We will definitely see [conventional bunker demand] decreasing over time," Demant said.

"It will unfortunately take quite some time. We've seen biofuels and LNG to a certain degree coming in, but it will take some time before we see ammonia and methanol coming in.

"The traditional fuels will decrease and the green will increase, and I think that the whole way business is done will change dramatically."