Maersk Oil Trading has leased oil storage space in Singapore, indicating a push into the Asian bunkering hub, especially as we get near to the 2020 sulphur cap.
As Reuters reported, the company has leased 120,000 cubic meters of space for fuel oil for six months. Until now, Maersk Oil Trading did not have its own storage tanks in Singapore for the supply of fuels to its customers, including Maersk.
This development comes at a time when the shipping industry is trying to decide the best way to comply with the 2020 regulations.
A few months before, Maersk got into a deal with Royal Vopak to launch a 0.5% sulphur fuel bunkering facility in Rotterdam. This will meet around 20$ of Maersk’s demand for IMO 2020 compliant fuels.
The lease also comes at a time of an unbalanced market, something that made many suppliers not to renew their fuel oil storage contracts in Singapore.
This situation becomes even more difficult considering the high fuel prices, which are challenging traders to recover the costs of storage.
