Everything To Know About Bunker Trading

LA holds the crown as the largest supplier by volume in the US. 

Back-to-back traders are spread more widely globally, as they can maintain relationships at numerous ports. London, Geneva, Greece, Gibraltar, Monaco, The Baltics, Miami, Houston, Singapore, Dubai, Denmark, Norway, and Benelux have a large concentration of back-to-back bunker traders. Back-to-back traders maintain relationships at the port/physical supply level in their target ports, often carving out a niche area/fuel type to offer margins to specific clients/ship owners.

Bunker trading firms are often inaugurated to service a specific segment and can have special teams/traders that deal with particular markets. Bunker traders operate portfolios in specific areas of the marine industry. Specialists can cover the oil & gas demands, offshore, cargo boats, and even as niche as working clients in the fishing/yachting industry.

Bunkers / Marine fuel is traded by back-to-back traders, physical suppliers, and offshore specialists.

Firms that purely trade bunkers back-to-back purchase the fuel from physical suppliers or oil majors and sell this to end users/clients. In most cases, they do not manage the material supply process but often have relationships with physical suppliers at specific ports. They can offer a price/volume to clients, enabling them to make a ”margin” or ”profit” on the dealing. Back-to-Back traders are often backed by a team of operators and analysts, ensuring end users a smooth logistics/shipping process.

Physical Suppliers are generally split into two units; supply traders and customer traders. Supply traders buy fuel/contracts from Oil Majors (BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, etc.) and have storage facilities in ports and physical assets (barges, terminals, etc.).  

The client base consists of drilling/rigging ships, dredgers, exploration containers, and rig supply craft. Offshore Specialists deliver oil and gas exploration containers and rigs in international waters. Offshore bunker retailers often have close relationships with producers and rig owners/operators to supply fleets across the space, ensuring the smooth operation of the rig/exploration site as a whole.

An endeavor that has made quite some noise in the Bunker Oil Trading Market is the inspiration for our write-up today. To give credit, we would like to talk a little about it. Sit Kwong Lam is the founder of Brightoil Petroleum. Brightoil Petroleum (Holdings) Ltd. is a resource-based energy firm focusing on upstream oil and gas resources exploration and other developments midstream and downstream.

The Group is primarily employed in the exploration, development, and production of Upstream Oil and Gas Fields, Marine Transportation, Oil Storage, Terminal Facilities, and International Trading and Bunkering Business. The Group currently employs four Aframax Oil Tankers and five VLCCs and has a total capacity surpassing 2 million tonnes.

The Group is one of China’s most renowned marine bunkering assistance providers, expanding services to global ports. The Group’s tradable range of products is diversified into fuel oil, crude oil, gas oil, petrochemical, and related petroleum products. The company is headquartered in Hong Kong.