From 1 April 2025, all bunker suppliers in Singapore will be required to provide digital bunkering services and issue electronic bunker delivery notes (e-BDNs) as a default.
Announced by Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment and the Ministry of Transport, Dr. Amr Khor at the opening ceremony of the 23𝐫𝐝 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐁𝐮𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐱𝐡𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 (𝐒𝐈𝐁𝐂𝐎𝐍), this follows successful trials conducted with bunker suppliers since 2023, including the top 10 bunker players, in Singapore.
This year’s SIBCON follows the theme “Accelerating the Maritime Fuel Transition”, with more than 2000 maritime professionals from 38 countries in attendance.
The digital bunkering process allows for efficient data sharing among bunker buyers, suppliers, which will help expedite administrative processes, reduce business costs, improve accountability, ensure compliance with regulations, reduce the potential for errors and support early detection of fraudulent activities.
This promotes a more streamlined, secured, and environmentally friendly bunkering process, that is expected to help our industry save close to 40,000 man-days annually.
Since the Port of Singapore became the first port globally to adopt mass flow metering for custody transfers from 1 Jan 2017, this represents another milestone to further strengthen the competitiveness and efficiency of bunkering in Singapore.
The International Maritime Organization accepted e-BDN as an equivalent format from July 2023.
To further enhance transparency and transaction integrity in bunkering operations, MPA will also introduce a centralised e-BDN record verification system. This enables key stakeholders to verify the e-BDN received against the information transmitted to MPA.
In line with this, Enterprise Singapore and Singapore Standards Council will also launch a new standard on “Specification for Digital Bunkering Supply Chain Documentation”, to facilitate smoother transactions through trusted and verifiable digital bunkering documents.