Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) today issued a notice seeking applications for methanol bunkering licences.
Successful applicants would be able to supply methanol as a marine fuel in the port of Singapore between 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2030.
The agreement includes end-to-end bunkering, which means supplying the fuel, barge operations, storage and safe bunkering onto vessels. Licensees would need to have trained manpower for safe handling of the fuel and have at least one IMO Type II barge.
The licensees also need to ensure that the methanol they supply "meet the specified carbon intensity on a well-to-wake basis, demonstrate a transparent and accurate chain of custody methodology to track emissions from source to delivery."
This implies the methanol supply needs to have reduced carbon emissions, and be produced via carbon capture (CC) technology or from biomass and renewable sources of energy.
Methanol participants do not expect this announcement to significantly impact the current regional methanol market in the short term, as they expect initial volumes to be limited. Some methanol traders had hoped that the government would provide financial incentives for the uptake as a marine fuel. "The industry concern is….no financial support from the Singapore government," said a methanol trader.
This announcement comes after MPA announced a new methanol bunkering standard earlier this month.
Methanol is one of the early alternative marine fuels, with newbuild order books going past 300as major container liners and other segments booked dual-fuelled methanol vessels, according to Norwegian classification society DNV's Alternative Fuels Insight. Maersk, among other vessel owners, has been leading the use of methanol as a marine fuel in its fleet.
But limited supply of green methanol has slowed the process of its adoption in the past year or so, said market participants.
