The Port of Fujairah has 12 licensed bunker suppliers including GP Global while Fairdeal did not renew its license for this year, the port's business development manager told S&P Global Platts on March 28.
The bunkering volume reported monthly is sales at anchorage reported by the 12 licensed suppliers to the port, Martijn Heijboer said. February sales totaled 637,585 cu m, from 679,970 cu m in January.
Fairdeal Traders SA said in August it provisionally suspended its bunkering operations in the UAE due to a "drastic reduction of bunker demand as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic."
GP Global also said last year that it would undergo financial restructuring after it failed to get full support from a series of financial institutions. GP Global and Fairdeal were not immediately available for comment.
As for alternative bunkering fuels being considered at the port, "hopefully toward the end of the year, we will have a bit of a clearer picture of where we want to go with LNG," Heijboer said. "We are keen to look at investors who are willing to put something onshore, not necessarily full scale right away, perhaps an LNG jetty, small-scale storage to anchor the business."
There is a case to put LNG infrastructure next to a Fujairah power plant, either as LNG backup as a second source and then grow on top of that the LNG for bunkering as well as for industry, the business development manager said.
"We are going to get some LNG for sure, the interest is there," he said. "We just to need to find the right setup with all the partners involved, especially around the power plants it is Abu Dhabi controlled. We need to be aligned with them on the gas/LNG supply possibilities to the power plants."
Qatar has not resumed bunkering at Fujairah, after building its own supply chain over the past few years, Heijboer said.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt ended their three-year blockade on Qatar in January.
"If the suppliers in Fujairah can offer very competitive bunkers of course, to the Qatari fleet, I assume they will have an interest in coming back to Fujairah," he said.
The number of ships calling at Fujairah was about 13,100 in 2020, he said.
