Overview
Singapore has emerged as a key global player and energy hub in maritime industries. As the world’s second-largest port and its largest bunkering hub, the city-state handles more marine fuel than anywhere else on earth. In 2025 alone, marine fuel sales hit a record 56.77 million tonnes. Now, Singapore is moving on renewable maritime fuel, and the rest of the industry is paying attention. This article explores how Singapore is leading this shift, on the back of DoubleHelix’s recent engagement with key government stakeholders in the city-state.
Singapore’s Energy Challenge: Big Port, Big Responsibility
The scale of Singapore’s maritime activity makes its decarbonisation challenge unusually complex. Over 44 million TEUs passed through the port in 2025. Thousands of vessels call there each year, burning fuel across every major shipping sector. The energy choices made at this single hub ripple through supply chains the world over.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has set clear domestic targets: port and terminal operators are to reach net-zero by 2050, and all new harbour craft must be capable of running on net-zero fuels from 2030. These are not distant commitments. Licensing frameworks, bunkering standards and infrastructure investment are already being shaped around them. Alternative marine fuels grew by nearly 45% year-on-year in 2025, reaching 1.95 million tonnes. The transition is underway.
The Maritime Decarbonisation Mandate: IMO 2030 and Beyond
Singapore’s push is part of a much broader regulatory shift. The 2023 IMO Greenhouse Gas Strategy sets binding targets for international shipping to cut total emissions by at least 20% by 2030 and at least 70% by 2040, compared to 2008 levels. Zero or near-zero fuels are expected to account for at least 5% of shipping’s energy mix by 2030.
In April 2025, IMO member states approved the Net-Zero Framework, a regulatory package that, once in force in 2027, will make shipping the first industry anywhere with mandatory binding emissions reductions. The Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) is already biting. Certified biofuels that achieve a sufficient greenhouse gas reduction can move a vessel from a poor D or E CII rating to a compliant C or better. That is a direct commercial incentive, and operators calling at Singapore are responding to it.
FuelEU Maritime, which entered full application in January 2025, adds further pressure for vessels operating in European waters. For shipping companies operating across Asia and Europe, the regulatory environment on both ends of the route is tightening simultaneously.
Biomethane, LNG and the Fuel Mix Debate
No single fuel has won the race to replace conventional marine fuel. Singapore is responding by building a multi-fuel ecosystem rather than betting on one pathway.
From January 2026, the MPA issued its first methanol bunkering licences, selecting three suppliers from 13 applicants based on supply chain reliability, operational readiness and sustainability certification. Those licences run through 2030, giving the market time to develop capability and confidence.
Biomethane is attracting serious commercial interest alongside methanol and LNG. Singapore has established a regulatory sandbox for biomethane supply aggregation, recognising its value as a drop-in fuel that works with existing infrastructure and requires no additional capital expenditure.
Malaysia is emerging as a significant regional production source, with suppliers developing bio-LNG from agricultural waste streams, including palm oil mill effluent and empty fruit bunches, for supply into Singapore’s bunkering market. Asia’s first physical bio-LNG supply deal under Singapore’s biomethane pilot was signed in late 2025.
As such, the direction is clear. The settled fuel mix, however, is not. What is certain is that whichever fuel operators choose, they will need to prove that it is what it claims to be.
What DoubleHelix Is Seeing on the Ground
DoubleHelix has been in Singapore, engaging directly with maritime government stakeholders on biofuel certification and supply chain verification. The conversations happening in Singapore are about which fuels qualify, how feedstock origin is traced and what audit-ready documentation looks like.
Through our ISCC and GGL certification work in Indonesia, DoubleHelix operates within the feedstock supply chains that flow directly into Singapore’s bunkering market. That on-the-ground presence matters. Indonesia and Malaysia together account for the majority of ISCC CORSIA certificates in the region. They are also the source of the fraud cases making headlines in Europe. Knowing those supply chains from the inside, in local markets and in the context of regional regulation, is a different capability from assessing documentation at a desk.
What This Means for Businesses Operating in Asia
If you are a maritime operator, energy procurement manager or logistics business with exposure to Singapore or the broader Asia-Pacific market, the window to build robust verification capability is open. It will not stay open indefinitely.
Regulatory scrutiny of biofuel supply chains is intensifying on all sides. The CII is a live requirement. The Net-Zero Framework enters force in 2027. FuelEU Maritime is already in effect for European-bound routes. Businesses that establish traceability, confirm feedstock origin and put audit-ready documentation in place before they need it will be in a materially stronger position than those who treat certification as a one-time checkbox.
Singapore is establishing itself as the energy hub for Asia’s maritime transition. The question is whether your supply chain verification is keeping pace.
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Read our article, ‘What is ISCC Certification and Who Needs It?’