Shipergy inks energy-adjusted bunker procurement deal with European operator

Shipergy, the technology-led marine fuels trading company, on Thursday (30 July) announced that it has signed what it believes to be the marine fuel industry’s first energy-adjusted procurement contract. 

Under the multi-year agreement, signed with a European operator, Shipergy procures and supplies marine fuels across the client’s fleet, with its performance formally benchmarked on the cost per unit of energy delivered, measured in dollars per gigajoule ($/GJ), rather than the industry’s traditional cost per tonne.

Shipergy said marine fuel has been bought and sold by the tonne since the industry began, but not all tonnes are equal. The energy content of fuel varies materially between suppliers in the same port, by as much as 5 to 7 per cent for VLSFO, meaning a cargo that looks cheaper on the headline market index can in fact cost more per unit of usable energy. Vessels bunkering lower energy fuel burn more of it to complete the same voyage, with direct consequences for cost, carbon emissions and regulatory compliance.

The new contract addresses this directly. For each covered port, a reference energy value is established from Energy Beacon data and agreed between the parties. Each quarter, Shipergy’s achieved cost of energy delivered, calculated from actual invoice values and laboratory-measured Net Calorific Value on every delivery, is compared against the energy-adjusted market benchmark. Where Shipergy delivers a demonstrated saving, the benefit is shared between the parties under a gain-share mechanism, fully aligning the interests of buyer and supplier for the first time in bunker procurement.

Supplier selection under the contract is driven by Energy Beacon, Shipergy’s proprietary analytics platform that predicts the energy content of marine fuel by supplier and port before purchase, and ranks firm offers on effective cost per megajoule rather than headline price per tonne. 

The platform has been independently validated by an external data scientist across more than 10,000 real production predictions spanning over 1,300 ports, demonstrating a 95 per cent confidence interval of just ±0.024 MJ/kg, equivalent to less than $0.30 per tonne of pricing uncertainty. Every prediction carries a confidence score, and the model is retrained monthly to stay calibrated as bio-blend prevalence and market conditions evolve.

The first stem under the contract, a marine gasoil delivery at a major North West European bunkering hub, was completed in July 2026. The delivery was covered by an independent survey verifying both quantity and quality, including laboratory testing of Net Calorific Value, allowing Energy Beacon’s predicted energy content to be validated directly against measured results. Supplier selection for the stem ran through the full Energy Beacon process: quality screening, energy content prediction by supplier, and ranking of firm offers on effective $/GJ.

Energy-based procurement aligns with where maritime regulation is already heading. FuelEU Maritime accounts for greenhouse gas intensity in energy terms (gCO2eq/MJ), the IMO’s Carbon Intensity Indicator rewards lower consumption, and the EU Emissions Trading System penalises excess carbon. Buying fuel on energy content rather than weight moves procurement onto the same basis as the compliance frameworks shipowners must now answer to.

Daniel Rose, Chief Executive Officer of Shipergy, said: “The market prices fuel in dollars per tonne, but ships do not run on tonnes, they run on energy. Two cargoes at the same price can differ by five per cent or more in the energy they actually deliver, and until now no procurement contract has recognised that.

“This agreement changes the basis on which marine fuel is bought. We are measured, and rewarded, on the true cost of energy delivered to the ship. We believe every fleet will buy this way within a decade.”

Photo credit: Shipergy
Published: 31 July, 2026