Aegean Marine Petroleum exits Singapore’s marine fuel market

Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc., a leading international marine fuel logistics company, said it will exit the Singapore market as a physical supplier by January 2018, after almost 11 years as a prominent player in Singapore. Aegean Marine will maintain a trading presence in the Singapore market.

“The bunkering market in general, and the Singapore market in particular, are extremely competitive. We had hoped that enforcement of mandatory mass flow meter (MFM)-equipped bunker barging in January would have driven commercial improvement in the Singapore market allowing Aegean to compete profitably,” said Aegean President Jonathan McIlroy. As a result, he said that “management has determined that Aegean’s resources can be more profitably deployed elsewhere.”

“We expect to debut these new markets over the course of 2018 and believe they will continue to reinforce Aegean’s commitment of being an innovative market leader as the industry looks forward to change ahead in 2020.”

Aegean Petroleum is in the process of arranging its orderly withdrawal from the physical supply market in Singapore in conjunction with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and its barging and cargo partners in the market.

“All deliveries and contracts that we have booked with clients’ vessels, cargo providers and barge contractors will be fulfilled,” emphasized Aegean’s president.

“Despite the cessation of our physical supply activities, the company will retain a presence in the market. “We will continue to employ a team of traders and support staff who will actively support our valuable clients in this market. This office will support our broad base of Asian customers across both our global physical supply network as well as handling back-to-back bunker trading and our lubricants business in Singapore and South-East Asia,” said McIlroy. “We have an extensive customer base in Asia and we are committed to supporting the valued clients of our business,” he said.

Aegean continues to develop new physical supply stations in addition to its most recent expansions in Algoa Bay, South Africa) in 2016, and Savannah (U.S.) and St Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands) in 2017. The Company believes it is in advanced stages of development with a number of new physical supply projects in new geographies, McIlroy said.