TFG Marine, a joint venture between Trafigura and John Fredriksen, has taken control of a Spanish company supplying marine fuels in the Mediterranean.
The bunker company has bought majority ownership of Vilma Oil Med for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals.
TFG, owned by trading giant Trafigura and Fredriksen-backed shipowners Frontline and Golden Ocean Group, said Vilma has developed a first-class service over the past 18 years.
The company operates in the Spanish African enclave of Ceuta in the Strait of Gibraltar.
Management is based in Madrid.
Vilma has an 84,000-cbm storage terminal and a bunkering barge supplying more than 1,500 vessels each year.
“Today’s announcement enables TFG Marine to supply vessels with a complete range of high-quality bunker fuel in the West Mediterranean Sea, which has long been our goal,” said Kenneth Dam, TFG’s global head of bunkering.
The bunkering vessel is being fitted with a mass flow meter, further demonstrating TFG’s mission to bring transparency and encourage digitalisation and further decarbonisation by the bunker industry, he added.
In January, a white paper sponsored by TFG called for radical change in a bunker sector rife with “questionable” practices.
Costly inaccuracies
The company had asked expert Adrian Tolson to examine how the industry can modernise.
In the paper, Tolson, owner of 2050 Marine Energy and a director of the International Bunker Industry Association, made the case for the widespread use of calibrated mass flow meters to eradicate costly inaccuracies.
This will also provide much-needed transparency by generating real-time data for all stakeholders in the supply chain, he argued.
TFG, formed in 2020, supplies more than 10m tonnes of marine fuels per year in 35 hubs.
Ernesto Fernandez-Maquieira, head of marine fuels at Vilma, said: “We’re thrilled about onboarding with TFG Marine as it propels us into an exciting era of modernisation and growth, promising opportunities for innovation and success.”
