Maersk ship takes record ethanol bunker in Singapore
Can an ocean carrier plan a rotation around ethanol in Singapore yet?
How big the stem was, what it proves about fuelling a deep-sea ship on ethanol, and what Singapore still has to write down before a carrier can plan on it.
In Singapore, a fuel tanker delivered about 5,000 tonnes of bioethanol to the Maersk Halifax while the ship worked cargo. It was the largest ethanol fuelling on record. A stem that size, at a berth, is what a ship's fuel plan needs. Whether it becomes routine depends on rules Singapore has not yet written.
On 17 October, the chemical tanker Golden Centaurus delivered about 5,000 tonnes of bioethanol to Maersk's container ship Maersk Halifax in Singapore. The ship was alongside at PSA's Pasir Panjang container terminal, and cargo work carried on during the transfer. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) says no single operation anywhere has bunkered more ethanol. The record matters less than this: one stem has already met most of what a fuel plan asks for.
A bunker desk plans a new fuel the same way it plans an old one. It needs a stem big enough to reach the next port that can supply the fuel. It needs that stem at a port on the rotation. And the delivery must not add hours to the call. Until a port can do all three, the new fuel sits on top of the real plan as a trial.
Halifax met the first two. Five thousand tonnes is nearly double the 2,800 tonnes Antonia Maersk took from Repsol in Barcelona in July. The ship took it at a container berth with cranes working. That matters because a separate anchorage call takes its hours out of the next port's berth window.
The third condition is still open. Whether 5,000 tonnes of ethanol fits inside a normal port stay depends on the pumping rate, and no one has published it. If the transfer ran longer than the cargo work, the ship waited for its fuel.
How was this done at a berth on the first attempt? Ethanol handles much like methanol, and MPA trained the crews on what it had learned from methanol bunkering. That got the first stem done. It will not make the second one routine, because Singapore's rules are still written for methanol.
TR 129, Singapore's technical reference for bunkering, covers methanol only. MPA's three methanol supply licences for 2026 to 2030 do not mention ethanol. The quantity is also unsettled. A mass flow meter measured the transfer, and its reading becomes the quantity on the bunker delivery note. MPA will use this stem to check whether existing meters measure ethanol accurately enough to rely on. A delivery stays a trial until buyer and seller both accept that number.
MPA says the Halifax data will show whether TR 129 can be adapted for ethanol. It gave no timeline. That is the document to watch for: an adapted TR 129, or a separate ethanol reference from MPA. Without one, the next 5,000-tonne stem in Singapore will be another trial.
Primary sources
- officialMaersk completes first large container vessel conversion to dual fuel methanol engine Maersk (reprinted by EnergyNow), 2024-11-18
- officialSingapore Conducts World's Largest Ethanol Bunkering Operation Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, 2026-10-17
- officialSingapore Strengthens Multi-Fuel Bunkering Capabilities and Digitalisation at SIBCON 2026 Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, 2026-10-14
- officialSingapore to Award Licences for Methanol Bunkering Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, 2025-11-24
