Brazil’s Petrobras Makes Inroads into Asian Bunker Market with Renewable VLSFO Sale
Brazil’s state-owned oil and gas titan Petrobras has tapped into the Asian bunker market, having completed its inaugural sale of very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) with 24% renewable content (B24) in Singapore.
As disclosed, the VLSFO was sold to Golden Island, a bunker supplier based in Singapore. Petrobras has shared that the transaction took place in early February with the delivery date slated for the end of the month.
“The sale of VLSFO with 24% renewable content in the Asian market aligns with Petrobras’ strategy to develop new products for a low-carbon market, drive innovation to create business value and enable solutions in new energy and decarbonization,” Claudio Schlosser, Petrobras’ Director of Logistics, Commercialization, and Markets, highlighted.
The product, which Petrobras Singapore sells, was reportedly formulated through a blend of 76% mineral fuel oil that predominantly comes from the company’s refineries and 24% of the ISCC-EU certified UCOME (used cooking oil methyl ester), a biofuel derived from the processing of used cooking oil (UCO).
According to Petrobras, the company used the facilities of the Jurong Port Universal Terminal, where it has a lease agreement for fuel oil and B24 tanks, for the formulation.
The process of supplying bunkers with renewable content follows the same operational procedures used for 100% mineral bunkers, primarily utilizing smaller ships to load the product at the terminal and deliver it to the consuming unit, the Brazilian player added.
Tips of the Scale: Asia’s Bunker Market Expansion
Despite oil price volatility and infrastructural challenges in the alternative fuel segment, the Asian bunker market has been growing exponentially. In 2024 only, Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub, reported record marine fuel total sales of 54.92 million metric tons, surpassing the previous year’s record.
Simultaneously, MPA Singapore revealed that its biofuel blend sales had grown from 0.5 million in 2023 to 0.88 in 2024.
China’s bunker fuel market has been expanding, too. For instance, in 2021, the Far East country unveiled that it had sold 6.6 million tons of VLSFO, a 62% jump from the same period the previous year.
Finally, estimates show that the Asia-Pacific bunker fuel market size will hold a ‘significant’ share by 2033, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.63% during the forecast period (2023-2033).
In the realm of alternative fuels, B24 biofuel has gained widespread attention from an array of industry stakeholders with its demand in Asia, especially Hong Kong and Singapore, expanding in response to the region’s shift toward lower-emission marine fuels and sustainable bunkering solutions.
Among recent developments within this landscape, in December 2024, Glander International Bunkering, a subsidiary of Bunker Holding, arranged a supply of 250 metric tons of B24 biofuel in Singapore in collaboration with South Korea’s SK Trading, marking a ‘giant leap’ toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the region.
Months before that, namely, in August 2024, Singapore’s Swire Shipping – part of Swire Group – completed a biofuel trial on its transpacific service.
The trial involved bunkering MV Suva Chief, a containership on the Sun Chief Express Ocean service, with B24 biofuel. Hong Kong-based marine fuel supplier, Chimbusco Pan Nation Petro-Chemical (CPN), and Swire Shipping’s bunkering partner the Hafnia Bunker Alliance were the participants in this trial.