Bunkering at the Port of Singapore: The new normal is digital

The Port of Singapore—the world’s largest bunkering port—is set to fully embrace digital bunkering. From April 1, 2025, bunker suppliers will be required to provide digital bunkering services and issue electronic bunker delivery notes (e-BDNs) as a default.

At the 80th Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) session in July 2023, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) formally confirmed that bunker delivery notes are acceptable in either hard copy or digital form.

In November of the same year, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA)—a driving force behind Singapore’s port and maritime development—launched the digital bunkering initiative through the use of digital bunkering solutions whitelisted by the authority. Singapore became the first port in the world to implement e-BDN.

In addition to switching to e-BDNs, MPA will also reduce the frequency for the verification of mass flow meters (MFM) from twice to once a year with effect from April 1, 2025. This is expected to save the industry approximately $300,000 a year.

What is more, MPA plans to introduce a centralized e-BDN record verification system by 2025. This enables key stakeholders to verify the authenticity of e-BDNs received from bunker suppliers against the information transmitted to MPA.

Finally, Enterprise Singapore and Singapore Standards Council (SSC) is expected to launch a new standard on “Specification for Digital Bunkering Supply Chain Documentation” to ensure consistency and interoperability between digital systems, and to facilitate smoother transactions through trusted and verifiable digital bunkering documents. The Singapore Standard (SS) 648 Code of Practice for Bunker Mass Flow Metering has also been revised to include data integrity and transmission requirements in line with this new digital standard.

Digital bunkering eliminates tedious manual processes and paperwork across the bunkering value chain. By digitalizing the traditional bunkering process and documentation such as e-BDN, bunker requisition form, checklists, and other forms, the digital bunkering initiative is expected to help the bunkering industry save close to 40,000 man-days annually.

It allows for efficient data sharing between bunker buyers and suppliers, which helps to expedite administrative processes, improve accountability, ensure compliance with regulations, reduce the potential for errors, and support early detection of fraudulent activities. It also promotes a more streamlined, secured, and environmentally friendly bunkering process.

In other news, MPA revealed in January 2025 that sales of alternative bunker fuels exceeded one million tonnes for the first time to reach 1.34 million tonnes in 2024. Moreover, total bunker sales registered a new high of 54.92 million tonnes, marking a 6% year-on-year increase.

As per MPA, Singapore supplies over a sixth of the total fuel used by global shipping and is committed to further developing a multi-fuel pathway.

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