Sales volumes of marine fuels in Singapore surged to a record 4.46 million tonnes in January, the highest in any month since records began, easing concerns that mass flow meters (MFM) could negatively impact bunkering activity, official data showed.

"The (January) numbers imply that ship-owners and operators are even more confident to take bunkers in Singapore now that all deliveries are made using MFM barges," a Singapore-based bunker fuels trader in Singapore said.

At the start of 2017, Singapore became the world’s first port to mandate the use of MFM on all bunker vessels licensed by the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) delivering marine fuel oil in an effort to boost quality and transparency across the industry.

MFMs are designed to minimise inaccuracies and errors in measuring the delivered quantity of bunkers. But some industry participants were concerned the new systems would drive away some of Singapore’s bunkering traffic as a result of higher costs. January sales volumes were 7 per cent higher from the same time last year and 14 per cent higher from the quantities sold in December, the latest data MPA showed.

A total of 3,630 vessels called in at Singapore for bunkers in January, 2 per cent higher from the previous month but virtually unchanged from the same time last year.