Bunker optimisation software platform Engine has branched into fuel trading with the launch of Engine X, a new worldwide marine fuel trading service.
The company said the decision to expand into trading “comes after witnessing the difficulties clients frequently face when executing trades, in a market that has become increasingly fraught and fragmented”.
According to Engine, 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.
“Fossil bunker fuels have been joined by biofuels, green methanol, bio-LNG and hydrogen,” Engine said. “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.”
Sid Mishra, Engine X’s Singapore-based supply manager, said the new fuel trade service will leverage off Engine’s extensive knowledge base and real-time data, although it recognises that 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,” Mishra said.
“This decade will see unprecedented changes in the energy sector, as the industry gradually transitions towards a low- and zero carbon future.”
Engine X services all main ports in the world from its 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 Engine X team will “leverage its expertise and connections in the alternative fuels space”, with biofuels and LNG being the key fuels it will focus on initially.
Engine was launched as a Navig8 spinoff in 2020, billed as the first free online fuel benchmarking site developed with an algorithm that relies on actual market transactions to produce live fuel-price assessments in more than 100 ports.
Now a stand-alone operation, the Engine platform is proving useful for medium and small owners and operators that may not necessarily have the budget to buy these services or do the analysis in-house.
The company told TradeWinds a year ago that the Engine platform allowed Greek owner Star Bulk Carriers to knock $2m off its fuel bill.
