Global Average VLSFO Price Hits All-Time High

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Friday January 21, 2022

The global average VLSFO price has hit the highest level since price indications for the new fuels started to emerge in 2019.

The average VLSFO price gained $3/mt to $694.50/mt on Thursday, according to Ship & Bunker's G20 index of prices at 20 leading bunkering ports, a record high. The previous high was $694/mt, noted on January 6, 2020 at the height of the IMO 2020 transition.

The reasons for the record high lie more with the fundamentals of the underlying crude oil market than any surge in marine fuel demand. Front-month Brent futures touched the highest intraday level since 2014 this week, and as of Friday morning stood at $87.03/bl, up by $9.25/bl since the end of 2021.

During the disruption of the IMO 2020 transition suppliers were able to command a significant logistics premium for VLSFO deliveries. At the previous VLSFO high in January 2020 the global VLSFO premium to Brent in metric tonnes stood at $175.11/mt, compared with Thursday's premium of $29/mt.