Port of Singapore’s new reality: digital bunkering

Starting 1 April 2025, the Port of Singapore will become the world’s first port to require all bunker suppliers to provide digital bunkering services and issue electronic bunker delivery notes (eBDNs).

Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment and the Ministry of Transport, Dr Amy Khor, announced the move during her opening address at the 23rd Singapore International Bunkering Conference (SIBCON).

Organised by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), SIBCON 2024 brought together more than 2,000 maritime professionals from 38 countries in October to discuss Accelerating the Maritime Fuel Transition.

Speaking at the conference, Dr Khor said prior to the decision to launch digital bunkering, pilot projects were conducted from 1 November 2023 with bunker suppliers, including the top 10 bunker players in Singapore. 

Dr Khor pointed out, “The digital bunkering process allows for efficient data sharing between bunker buyers and suppliers, which will help 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, which is expected to help industry save close to 40,000 man-days annually.” 

She said the rollout of digital bunkering represents “a key milestone to further strengthen the competitiveness and efficiency of bunkering in Singapore since the Port of Singapore became the first port globally to adopt mass flow metering for custody transfers from 1 January 2017. Singapore will be the first port globally to implement digital bunkering at scale for all bunkering operations and will continue to exchange our experiences with like-minded ports.”

IMO began accepting e-BDN as an equivalent format starting July 2023.  
To further enhance transparency and transaction integrity in bunkering operations, Dr Khor says MPA will also introduce a centralised e-BDN record verification facility. This enables key stakeholders to verify the e-BDN received against the information transmitted to MPA. Additionally, Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG), through the Singapore Standards Council, will launch a new Singapore Standard (SS) 709 Specification for Digital Bunkering Supply Chain Documentation, to ensure data consistency and interoperability between digital systems and facilitate smoother transactions through trusted and verifiable digital bunkering documents. EnterpriseSG has also launched the revised Singapore Standard 648 Code of Practice for Bunker Mass Flow Metering to include data integrity and transmission requirements in line with this new digital standard.

Dr Khor also noted MPA has been working with industry and its unions to review rules and reduce business costs. This has resulted in MPA reducing the frequency for the verification of mass flow meters from twice to once a year from 1 April 2025 in line with the updated SS648:2024 standards. This is expected to save the industry approximately US$300,000 a year. She said risk-based audits will continue as the bunker industry undertakes this transition.