Marine ethanol reached or approached price parity with marine gas oil in Houston, Santos and Rotterdam during the first half of 2026 as supply disruption drove conventional bunker costs sharply higher, according to the Climate Ethanol Alliance.
The comparison was calculated in dollars per gigajoule rather than dollars per tonne to account for ethanol’s lower energy content. Ethanol was cheaper than MGO in several monthly assessments in the US and Brazil, while closing the gap with the distillate fuel across all three hubs. VLSFO remained cheaper throughout the period.
An MGO index covering 20 leading bunkering locations rose 77.8% month on month in March, while VLSFO averaged $898 per tonne, up 65.2%.
On 11 March, MGO was assessed at $1,120 per tonne in Rotterdam and $1,068 per tonne ex-wharf in Houston. VLSFO stood at $780 and $669 per tonne, respectively.
Fuel oil shipments from key Middle Eastern suppliers were curtailed after 28 February, pushing major bunker grades in Singapore to more than double and tightening prompt availability. Some suppliers shifted towards spot sales rather than term contracts.
The disruption was uneven. Most ports in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar were operating normally by 3 August, while operations in Bahrain remained suspended. Iraq’s Basra Oil Terminal had stopped exports and one single-point mooring facility was operating below full capacity.
For Rotterdam, the alliance estimated a duty-unpaid T1 ethanol price by deducting the EU import duty of €192 ($221) per cubic metre from the quoted duty-paid T2 price. Rotterdam completed its first ethanol bunkering of a seagoing vessel in May, supplying X-Press Feeders’ Eco Levant with a blend of 90% certified biomethanol and 10% certified second-generation ethanol.
On 12 July, CMA CGM, Copersucar and Bunker One completed Brazil’s first bioethanol bunkering of a deep-sea containership. The fuel was supplied to the 13,000-TEU CMA CGM Iron at Santos. The vessel is fitted with an engine certified to operate on conventional fuel, methanol and ethanol.
The Climate Ethanol Alliance is an international ethanol-sector partnership with provisional IMO consultative status.