Category: News

London, United Kingdom – 13 November 2024 – ENGINE, an intelligence platform for marine fuel research and trading, is proud to announce its selection by Bureau Veritas (BV) as one of the “Top 50 Most Innovative Startups and Scaleups in Maritime” for 2024. This recognition, awarded in collaboration with BV and Thetius, underscores ENGINE’s commitment to enhancing transparency and help shipowners to navigate the transition to lower-emission fuels through data-driven innovation.

ENGINE has gained industry prominence for its comprehensive intelligence platform, particularly for developing biofuel benchmark prices that enable shipowners to compare biofuel costs with conventional fuels as part of a broader energy strategy. In 2024, ENGINE established benchmark price partnerships with ResourceWise’s PRIMA Markets and the London Stock Exchange Group.

Additionally, ENGINE’s pioneering Fuel Switch Snapshot, published weekly, offers clear, comparable pricing of six key fuel types, helping the maritime sector evaluate the economic feasibility of various energy options.

Together, these resources empower shipowners to make informed choices on conventional bunker fuels, biofuels and LNG.

ENGINE’s fuel trading service, launched to simplify the procurement of both conventional and alternative fuels, has also quickly gained traction. By integrating seamlessly with ENGINE’s intelligence platform, the service provides users with a one-stop solution for market insights and fuel transactions. In addition to interactive tools that enable users to monitor, research and trade fuels, ENGINE offers live news reporting of decarbonisation technologies and regulations.

“We’re thrilled to be recognised by Bureau Veritas as a leader in maritime innovation,” said Erik Hoffmann, Managing Editor of ENGINE’s news department. “We know shipowners are trying to strike the right balance between keeping costs in check and lowering emissions, which isn’t easy with all the different regulations out there. Our goal with ENGINE is to simplify these decisions, making it easy for users to see their options across both conventional and alternative fuels.”

ENGINE’s inclusion in Thetius and BV’s top 50 list highlights its role in helping shipping evaluate lower-carbon options while meeting operational needs, aligned with the industry’s goals to reduce its environmental impact and pursue emission reduction targets.

For more information, please email marketing@engine-info.online.

 

London, United Kingdom – 17 September 2024 – ENGINE, a leading marine fuels intelligence platform, is proud to announce its participation as a Silver Sponsor for the Maritime Decarbonisation Europe 2024 event, taking place on 24-25 September in Amsterdam. The event, organised by Riviera Maritime Media, brings together key stakeholders from across the maritime industry to discuss the critical steps needed to achieve the sector’s decarbonisation goals. 

ENGINE’s bunker software-as-a-service enables shipowners to research, track, and trade marine fuels globally, with pricing for biofuels and LNG also available at key ports. Its research desk and live newsfeed informs shipowners on developments in decarbonisation technologies and regulations, offering insights that support shipowners looking to transition to greener fuels.  

“We are excited to sponsor and actively participate in Maritime Decarbonisation Europe 2024,” said Erik Hoffmann, Managing Editor of ENGINE. “Our platform delivers the data and intelligence that shipowners need to plan their path toward decarbonisation, and this event is an ideal forum for discussing the future of sustainable shipping.” 

Hoffmann will also speak at the event, addressing how maritime companies can signal demand and mobilise upstream investment in alternative fuels. His talk will cover the roles orderbooks, offtake agreements and pilot testing projects have in influencing fuel producers about future demand. He will offer advice on how shipping companies can communicate their alternative fuel plans to suppliers and show just how price-sensitive dual-fuel shipowners are when they pick between conventional and alternative fuels. Anton Shamray, Head of Product, will also be in attendance.

For more information about the event, visit https://www.rivieramm.com/events/events/maritime-decarbonisation-europe1. 

If you are interested in meeting Erik or Anton in Amsterdam, please email marketing@engine-info.online.

 

• Singapore
• ARA
• Portugal
• Baltics

• Singapore (B24-VLSFO UCOME)
• Rotterdam (B30-VLSFO HBE)

 For further information or media-related queries, please contact:  

Erik Hoffmann  
Email: erik.h@engine.online
Phone: +44 755 7878 948  

ENGINE has teamed up with price reporting agency and biofuels specialist PRIMA Markets on biofuel-blended bunker fuel benchmark prices.  ENGINE is also introducing its Fuel Switch Snapshot, a price tracker of alternative and conventional bunker fuels in the world’s two biggest bunkering hubs.  

Biofuels have become considerably more mainstream as bunker fuels in the past year and market participants are looking for ways of benchmarking their buying performance against their peers.  Combining ENGINE’s conventional bunker fuel benchmarks with PRIMA Market’s assessed biofuel benchmarks, and backing them up with stems, generates robust B24 and B30 benchmarks for Rotterdam, Singapore and Los Angeles.  Together, we are launching a series of eight bio-bunker benchmark prices:   

• B30 VLSFO Rotterdam HBE
• B30 LSMGO Rotterdam HBE
• B30 UCOME VLSFO ARA
• B30 UCOME LSMGO ARA
• B24 UCOME VLSFO Singapore
• B24 UCOME LSMGO Singapore
• B30 UCOME VLSFO Los Angeles
• B30 UCOME LSMGO Los Angeles

The two HBE prices listed above contain 30% biofuel produced from advanced bio feedstocks listed in Annex IX Part A of the EU’s recast Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). Advanced biofuel prices are effectively rebated through the Dutch hernieuwbare brandstofeenheden (HBE) system, and this HBE rebate is currently about 3-4 times greater than the EU Allowance (EUA) deduction for the same biofuels. 

The six other used cooking oil methyl ester (UCOME) benchmarks represent biofuels produced from bio feedstocks listed in Annex IX Part B of RED II. These do not qualify for Dutch HBE rebates and are therefore typically priced higher than advanced biofuels in the Netherlands – the world’s biggest market for bio-bunkers.  

All eight of these new benchmark prices will be displayed with market commentary in the news feed on the ENGINE marine fuel intelligence platform and the PRIMA CarbonZero data analytics platform.  

ENGINE managing editor Erik Hoffmann said: 

“Biofuels are increasingly making their way into the bunker blending pool as regulations on ship emissions tighten and incentives to burn more sustainable fuels grow. Partnering with PRIMA Markets on bio-bunker price benchmarks makes a lot of sense for ENGINE because PRIMA is a trustworthy and rigorous price reporting agency that produces robust price assessments on bio feedstocks and finished biofuels.

In the marine space, ENGINE has developed the industry’s largest database of real bunker market transactions to bring transparency to this historically opaque market. Combining PRIMA’s biofuels expertise with ENGINE’s bunker market intelligence makes for a strong combination and we’re thrilled to be able to deliver these specialist benchmark prices.”

PRIMA Markets director Matthew Stone said:  

“The marine market is the latest entrant to the booming renewables space. PRIMA Markets has a long history of helping firms across different verticals develop and execute their emissions reduction strategies. PRIMA Markets provides the data, information frameworks and deep understanding of the market from feedstocks to renewable fuels to allow firms to execute successful strategies in renewables. PRIMA is proud to be working with ENGINE to extend its services to shipping firms, bunker blenders, and the end-users looking to reduce the emissions profile of their products as they cross the globe.”

 

Introducing ENGINE’s Fuel Switch Snapshot   

Track alternative fuel prices against conventional fuels, so you know when to make the switch. 

Despite the EU Emissions Trading System’s (EU ETS) tax on carbon, burning HSFO, VLSFO or LSMGO and paying for the CO2 they emit still pays off when bio-blended alternatives are priced as high as they are today. However, as time goes on and penalties increase, the switch to alternative fuels becomes a question of when, not if.  

ENGINE’s weekly Fuel Switch Snapshot provides an apples-to-apples comparison of bunker fuels on the market, so buyers can consider not only the outright price of the fuels, but also how far their ships can sail on them and what they will pay to burn them on EU-linked voyages. 

Once a week, ENGINE will publish a snapshot of alternative and conventional bunker fuel prices in the world’s two biggest bunkering hubs. The prices will come adjusted for calorific contents – the bang for your buck – and with costs of emitting CO2 in the EU both included and excluded. This is to illustrate the impact of the EU ETS on pricing and provide the best possible generalised comparison tool in these fast-changing times. 

Read the first edition on how low prices make LNG the obvious choice for most dual-fuel ships these days. 

  

For further information or media-related queries, please contact:  

Erik Hoffmann  
Email: erik.h@engine.online
Phone: +44 755 7878 948  

Global bunker trading firm ENGINE X has been certified by the renowned International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) system to trade sustainable biofuels. 

The maritime industry is in the early days of a major decarbonisation effort, and when shipowners burn lower-carbon fuels they need to prove to regulators that these do indeed have lower emissions than full fossil ones.

A way to prove that a ship has been running on a more sustainable fuel is to show a Proof of Sustainability (PoS) to a verifier. A PoS must be issued by ISCC-certified (or cross-compliant) companies throughout the supply chain to keep it intact. Otherwise the chain is broken and emission reductions cannot be verified.

“ENGINE X is now all set to offer sustainable biofuels with Proof of Sustainability that our customers can show to verifiers to prove their emission reductions. This will be massively important for shipowners in the years and decades ahead, as the industry goes greener. We have mapped out dozens of bunker suppliers selling sustainable biofuels in ports around the world, to help clients identify trustworthy and legitimate sources for biofuel bunkering,” ENGINE X’s Supply Manager says.

Make your compliance count

2024 marks the first year that ship emissions will be taxed in the EU. The least laborious way to rein in emissions and pay less for them is to burn sustainable biofuels, which qualify for a carbon factor of zero in the EU. This means that shipowners don’t have to pay to burn them.

But if you can’t prove that a biofuel is sustainable, you will have to pay full oil-emission price for it. It’s a question of cost-savings. Shipowners that opt to buy more expensive biofuels need to be able to prove to regulators that these fuels are actually sustainable, so that their decarbonisation efforts count towards their compliance record.

 

For further information please contact:

Email: enquiries@engine-x.com

The team behind marine fuels intelligence software ENGINE diversifies into bunker trading to help tackle the mounting complexities facing shipowners.

Five years after launching one of the industry’s leading bunker information and news platforms, ENGINE, which counts a number of large well-known industry players among its long-time users, has today announced the launch of a new worldwide marine fuel trading service. The decision to expand into trading, it says, comes after witnessing the difficulties clients frequently face when executing trades, in a market that has become increasingly fraught and fragmented.

The Trading Manager of ENGINE X, explained: “This decade will see unprecedented changes in the energy sector, as the industry gradually transitions towards a low- and zero carbon future. With its extensive knowledge base and real-time data, ENGINE X will be strategically placed to assist its customers with all their present and future energy needs.”

What used to be two main fuel grades has now become a handful of fuel types and grades, with a kaleidoscope of new renewable options to explore. Fossil bunker fuels have been joined by biofuels, green methanol, bio-LNG and hydrogen. Bunker demand for these alternative fuels is set to grow rapidly from a small base as global and regional environmental regulations will make it progressively more expensive to stick with the fossil fuels. These fuels come with wide variations in calorific contents and combustion performances and knowing them well can be make or break for clients, who are grappling with controlling costs whilst also trying to remain compliant with increasingly stringent regulations.

ENGINE X builds on the data on the ENGINE platform but recognises that some things seldom change: human bunker buyers want to deal with other human bunker traders, all the way through from the point of enquiry to successful bunker delivery.

“Introducing the human aspect of trading was the natural progression for ENGINE,” they continued.

Now, ENGINE X is servicing all main ports in the world from its core offices in Dubai and Singapore, with more office locations due to open in London, Houston and Athens in 2024. As well as supplying the usual bunker fuel grades, the team will leverage its expertise and connections in the alternative fuels space, with biofuels and LNG key fuels to focus on initially.

About ENGINE X:

ENGINE X, leveraging the ENGINE platform’s technological prowess, promises shipowners, operators and suppliers a seamless, transparent and efficient trading experience. In an industry where timeliness, quality and reliability make all the difference, ENGINE X promises to deliver all that and more.

For further information or media-related queries, please contact:

Email: enquiries@engine-x.com