TWO global bunkering companies have been awarded new bunker-supplier licences to operate in Singapore's port, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and Enterprise Singapore announced in a joint statement on Monday night.
The entry of Minerva Bunkering and TFG Marine will consolidate Singapore's position as the global bunkering and oil trading hub, said the agencies. This brings the total number of MPA-licensed bunker suppliers in the port to 45. The new players will increase the supply of marine fuel that complies with the International Maritime Organization 2020 sulphurregulations in the Singapore bunker market, said MPA and ESG. They will each also be required to operate at least two clean-energy dual-fuelled bunker barges, to drive sustainable bunkering activities.
Minerva Bunkering and TFG Marine are entities related by shareholding to Mercuria Group and Trafigura respectively, two of the world’s largest independent energy-trading companies with significant presence in Singapore. The agencies said that bunkering services in the port, and oil trading, remain resilient despite the global Covid-19 pandemic. Bunker sales in Singapore were 12.7 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2020, up 5.4 per cent from 12.1 million tonnes in the year-ago period.
Fortuitousness or Farseeingness?