Singapore’s Top 10 Bunker Suppliers 2024: Conventional Fuels and Biofuels

by Mohd
by Mohd

Singapore, 15 January 2025 – Singapore, the world’s undisputed bunkering hub, closed 2024 with a landmark performance, reporting total marine fuel sales of 54.9 million metric tonnes (Million MT), a robust 6% increase over 2023. Despite the record-breaking figures, a major shift in reporting practices by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has altered how market leadership is perceived.

For decades, Singapore’s top 10 bunker suppliers were ranked purely by volume, providing a clear hierarchy for industry watchers. Starting 2024, however, the MPA has discontinued ranking suppliers strictly by throughput. Instead, the authority released a list of its Top 10 licensed suppliers in alphabetical order, signaling a strategic pivot: market influence is increasingly measured by regulatory compliance, adherence to safety standards, and participation in the maritime energy transition, rather than just conventional fuel sales.

This paradigm shift highlights a new era in Singapore’s bunkering ecosystem, one where alternative fuels and decarbonization initiatives define the leaders, and conventional volume supremacy no longer tells the whole story.

Conventional Fuel Leaders: Stability Amid Change

Even though official volume rankings are no longer published, the alphabetical Top 10 list confirms that Singapore’s traditional heavyweights continue to dominate the conventional marine fuel market. The Top 10 licensed conventional bunker suppliers in 2024 are:

Based on the last publicly available volume data from 2023:

  • Equatorial Marine Fuel retained its position as the local leader.
  • TFG Marine, Sinopec Fuel Oil, and Petrochina International also remained dominant players.

The 2024 Top 10 list reveals two notable shifts:

  1. Glencore’s Rise: Glencore officially entered the Top 10 for the first time, up from 11th in 2023, reflecting its expanding footprint in Singapore’s conventional fuel sector.
  2. Shell’s Exit: Shell Eastern Trading, ranked 9th in 2023, is absent from the 2024 list, illustrating the intense competition for physical bunker volumes in the world’s largest port.

These changes underscore that, even in the conventional segment, market dynamics remain fiercely competitive.

The Green Race: Biofuels and Alternative Marine Fuels Take Center Stage

The strategic story of 2024 is Singapore’s rapid shift toward alternative fuels. Total sales of alternative marine fuels surpassed 1 million tonnes for the first time, with biofuels leading the charge.

Biofuel bunkering sales rose dramatically by 68.51%, increasing from 524,000 tonnes in 2023 to 883,000 tonnes in 2024. This surge reflects both the growing demand for cleaner-burning fuels and the shipping industry’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Reflecting this trend, the MPA released a Top 5 Biofuel Bunker Suppliers list in alphabetical order:

This list illustrates the emerging “energy transition coalition” in Singapore: major oil companies (Chevron), global trading houses (Vitol, Minerva), shipping/trading leaders (Maersk Oil Trading), and refiners supporting alternative fuels (SK Energy).

LNG, Ammonia, and Methanol: Diversifying the Fuel Mix

In addition to biofuels, LNG bunkering more than quadrupled in 2024, reaching 464,000 tonnes, while Singapore also recorded its first official ammonia supply and continued methanol trials. This expansion underscores the city-state’s ambition to diversify beyond conventional fuels, reinforcing its position as a global innovation hub for low- and zero-carbon marine fuels.

Redefining Success in Singapore’s Bunkering Market

The shift away from traditional volume-based rankings reflects a broader industry trend: commercial success in Singapore is now intrinsically linked to sustainability, diversification, and regulatory compliance.

The true measure of a top supplier in Singapore is no longer simply how much fuel is moved, but what kind of fuel is delivered, and how it contributes to decarbonization and a sustainable maritime future. Singapore is now more than a global port, it is a laboratory for the maritime energy transition, where conventional fuel leadership is just one component of a multifaceted strategy for success.

Singapore remains the world’s leading bunkering hub, but in 2024, the green race has truly begun, reshaping the hierarchy and defining the next chapter in global maritime fuel markets.

Source MPA Singapore

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