Ofiniti chair Torben Carlsen (l) and chief executive Tue Raguse (r). Image Credit: Ofiniti

• Firm estimates close to 20% of all marine fuel delivered next year will pass through its platform
• 24,700 bunker operations completed by August, beating 2025's full-year total
• Ofiniti is not a procurement or voyage optimisation platform; focus is on in-port operations, scheduling, and documentation
• Expansion under way from Singapore into the South China Sea, with global top 10 suppliers in talks
• Transparency pays, says chair Torben Carlsen, from on-time barges to verified deliveries

If I had to sum up the story of marine fuel digitalisation firm Ofiniti in one word, it would be growth.

So far in 2026 it has completed 24,700 bunker operations, already exceeding the 24,000 it handled across the whole of 2025 with four months of the year still to run.

Over the past 18 months more than 13,000 unique vessels on the receiving side have been exposed to the platform.

Last year it handled half a million mt of alternative fuels, a volume it already surpassed by August.

These are some of the impressive figures that chief executive Tue Raguse shared with Ship & Bunker in an interview alongside the company's new chair, former DFDS chief executive Torben Carlsen.

"Our internal estimate is that close to 20% of all marine fuel delivered next year will go through our platform," Raguse added.

On top of this, in March Ofiniti raised $6.8 million in funding, taking total funding to $9 million; in May the firm acquired Teqplay, a company using digital twins of vessel and cargo movements to improve operational efficiency; and in August Carlsen joined the company to help push for growth on the buyer side of the marine fuel market.

So when I say growth, I mean not just Ofiniti's story so far, but also the trajectory.

That growth is also changing Ofiniti's role in the market, with the company aiming to connect supply, demand, and infrastructure in one operational ecosystem.

What It Is. What It Isn't.

The numbers are impressive by themselves, but even more so when we consider that the sector has watched digital bunkering platforms come and go since the early 2000s.

The question is why has Ofiniti succeeded where so many have failed, and the answer may have as much to do with what the platform isn't as with what it is.

Many digital bunkering platforms of the past 25 years have focused on the procurement side of the marine fuels chain, but both men were clear that is not an area where Ofiniti wants to be involved.

"In the past many have thought that's where you can do something and make the money, but we are not trying to be the buyers of the bunker," said Carlsen.

"No, we're definitely not a procurement system," echoed Raguse, "and we're not a voyage or routing system.

"What we focus on is connecting the operational layer around bunkering – across supply, demand and infrastructure. Scheduling, coordination, digital delivery, documentation and operational intelligence are all parts of that broader system, giving the different parties around a bunker operation a shared operational picture."

Of course, the marine fuels landscape today has many complexities that did not exist 25 years ago, and addressing those is at the core of what Ofiniti does.

Indeed, early growth came from LNG, where the platform takes on the heavier administrative and regulatory load the fuel carries compared with conventional grades.

"The fact that so many customers have signed up, starting from the LNG side, partly driven by regulation but also the complexity of the newer fuels, I think is a very good sign," said Carlsen.

Who those customers were also surprised him, because he had assumed the supply side would resist exposing its operations on a shared, third-party system, though Singapore's e-BDN mandate, under which the supplier issues the document, helped bring that side through the door.

"I was a little concerned that the barge side would not be so interested in the transparency and the data availability, but they actually seem to be the first adopters," he said.

Carlsen said one consequence is that many shipowners are now benefiting from the platform without knowing it, while others who have seen the data are now asking for it through their suppliers.

"They tell the supplier, we need this data. You get it however you want to us, but we know you can get it from Ofiniti," he said.

This naturally raises an important point: Data, and more importantly trust in that data, is king.

That is even more so now that AI coding tools can develop the software to leverage that data at a tiny fraction of the cost of only a few years ago.

But on this point Raguse is clear: "We are not a data company," he said.

"We care deeply about the integrity of our customers' data.

"What is unique about having an operating system for bunkering is it needs to be shared, and data is owned by multiple different parties.

"When you are issuing a BDN, the charterer of the vessel, the operator of the vessel, the owner of the vessel, all have a right to access that data. You have surveyors who are engaged, you have port authorities who are engaged.

"They all have the right to access the BDNs and I think it is ultimately for the betterment of the industry that the people and the stakeholders who want and need to access this operational documentation should have the access to it."

Trust is a different matter.

It has to be earned, and Carlsen suspects it is precisely what carried a foreign firm into Singapore where so many others have failed.

"One of the reasons we were able to get into Singapore is that we were humble, only dealing with what we were the best in the industry to do," he said.

"Ofiniti has been able to build credibility that we know what we're doing, and that has caused the port of Singapore to take the leap of faith with us."

Growth: Buyers

Ofiniti built its position with alternative fuels in Singapore, the first port to mandate digital bunkering.

It is also by far the world's largest bunkering port, in 2025 recording a record 56.2 million mt in bunker sales against global demand Ship & Bunker puts at around 275 million mt.

From that base, growth comes in two forms.

The first is reaching more of the parties around each bunker operation, and above all the buyers of the fuel.

The second is reaching new markets.

Ofiniti says that bringing buyers closer into the system is part of a broader ambition to connect the different sides of the bunker operation in one shared operational ecosystem, and this is exactly where Carlsen comes in.

I asked him what he had wanted from the bunkering process as a buyer that he had not been getting, and what would make an owner choose the platform voluntarily in the absence of a mandate.

He is well placed to answer, having joined DFDS as chief financial officer in 2009 and served as chief executive from 2019 until earlier this year, running a ro-ro network that bought bunkers across Northern Europe.

His answer, in short, was that transparency pays.

"As a ship owner, what I saw was how important it is that the barges arrive in time," he said.

At DFDS that mattered enough to have a name, an internal programme called "every minute counts", built on the logic that a faster port turnaround buys more time at sea, letting a ship slow down and save fuel.

"Reducing your fuel consumption is good for your finances, it's good to comply with the regulation, and it's good for the environment," he said.

"For that you need the right data. We need to know exactly when our ships are arriving at port, when do they leave, when do the last trailers arrive. Can we leave earlier?

"If a barge is late, you risk that you get delayed with your departure, and that has huge financial implications and operational implications.

"We also see accidents where we get the wrong bunker and engines are dead, and then of course many ship owners have this feeling that sometimes there was not a complete match between the stated delivery and what actually was happening on the ship."

Persuading owners that these are precisely the problems the platform solves is now part of Carlsen's remit, and he makes the case from his own experience.

For example, Carlsen said data from the platform allows delivery metrics to be checked after the fact, by setting what a barge did against what was invoiced.

"The barge was there for six hours. Normally we would get X amount of bunker fuel. Why is there a mismatch?" he said.

He said the same record helps trace a fuel problem back to its source, letting an operator establish quickly where a vessel last bunkered after an engine failure.

Viewed from this perspective, it is easy to see where the benefits sit for owners.

And whether it is alerts when a vessel arrives at berth, or notifications when a bunkering is running too long, it also highlights how May's Teqplay acquisition expands Ofiniti's ability to connect vessel movement, port activity and bunker operations into a broader operational picture.

Growth: Geography

Wherever Ofiniti expands to geographically, the market will be smaller by volume than Singapore, and it will almost certainly come without an e-BDN mandate to help bring customers through the door.

Alternative fuels remain in their infancy too, and with a real possibility of the IMO fumbling its Net-Zero Framework (NZF) again, they may arrive more slowly than expected, further limiting where an alternative fuels push can help.

But Carlsen had already explained that the platform has plenty to offer beyond a mandate, and he said the same logic applies to the fuel mix.

"Ofiniti took off with LNG in Singapore, but I'm not sure when I see the numbers that the development is dependent on LNG," said Carlsen.

"Some of the customers get their toes wet with LNG, and when they see the system and its advantages, LNG will not really matter, because why would you want to have one level of professionalism for one type of fuel and an old-fashioned system for the rest?"

Not that the alternative fuels story looks particularly thin, with Raguse noting around 50% of the gross tonnage on the orderbook is LNG-fuelled, much of it containerships, and LNG pricing is competitive against gasoil, and in some cases VLSFO, particularly under FuelEU Maritime.

All that is left is deciding where to go, and to that end the company has already expanded into the ARA hub, West Africa, and Scandinavia.

Raguse said the company is now working outwards from Singapore into the South China Sea.

Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand are the near-term targets, with China under exploration, and two of Hong Kong's top five suppliers currently running trials.

Beyond the regional push, Raguse said much of the potential growth sits with the global top 10 suppliers, and Ofiniti is in active conversations with players in that bracket.

The company is also rolling out across the US and Panama with an existing customer, and Raguse said the recent addition of Greater Houston gives it the first and third largest US ports by gross tonnage through its Teqplay acquisition.

"The common thread across those markets is Ofiniti's ambition to connect more participants and more operational data around each bunker operation," said Raguse.

As for further acquisitions, he said Ofiniti is in active conversations with several companies and monitoring a handful more.

Not for Everyone

The bunker industry has long carried a poor reputation for its lack of transparency and persistent malpractice, on both the buyer and supplier sides.

Increased transparency and data is a welcome remedy, but it is not for everyone.

This year has seen an uptick in shadow fleet activity, or at least in the attention paid to it by the mainstream media, as US action against Iran and the sanctions net around Russia have put a spotlight on the industry's darkest corners.

"The whole shadow fleet, where do they get their bunkers from? That's obviously not people on Ofiniti's platform," said Carlsen.

Still, he argues there are plenty of legitimate operators with an interest in transparency, and with the right tools they can use it to commercial advantage.

"The good guys, those who just want to run their businesses in a good way, whether it's a barge owner or ship owner or a port like Singapore, all of those parties want transparency and want to demonstrate that they follow the regulations, that they're not the ones involved with the shadow fleet," he said.