Bureau Veritas: VeriFuel publishes overview of Q3 2025 global bunker fuel quality

French testing, inspection and certification firm Bureau Veritas recently provided Singapore bunkering publication Manifold Times a copy of its VeriFuel Fuel Quality Testing Q3 2025 Report which provides an overview of marine fuel quality, emerging trends, and compliance levels based on all tested bunker samples across its laboratories. The following is an overview of the report:

Quality Trends and Comparisons:

General Statistics 2025

Based on the data below, small fluctuations are observed in the distribution of fossil and biofuels with the most notable being the reduction of Bio-Residual fuels in Q3 2025. For distillates more than 99% of deliveries are supplied as DMA grade. On the residuals side, there is a close split between RMD80 and RMG180 grades for ULSFO, while RMG380 remains the dominant grade for both VLSFO and HSFO [Figure 1]. For the statistical evaluation, comparison against ISO 8217:2017 has been used as it is also most frequent edition requested.

The introduction of Med-ECA in May 2025 has increased the ULSFO demand, while a small but steady growth can be observed in the HSFO samples, both leading to a reduction of approximately 4% in VLSFO [Figure 2].

Moreover, a small decline in the number of out-of-spec samples can be observed for both VLSFO and HSFO vs Q2/2025. In contrast, nearly 5% of the USLFO samples are out-of-spec, mainly due to sulphur content, followed by sediments and viscosity [Figure 3].

Distillates 2025

DMA 0.10%

Whereas no significant differences in the quarterly averages are observed for the DMA samples, there is a notable reduction in the number of out-of-spec deliveries compared to previous months [Table 1 and 2].

For the majority of the out-of-spec DMA samples, the spec is failed due to pour point and water content (combined with appearance). Note that for Q2 2025, the pour point is compared to the summer specification [Figure 4].

Residual 2025

RMG380 0.50%

For residual samples, and especially RMG380 0.50%, the average viscosity and density continue to increase. As the lower viscosity limit is a challenge delivering to ISO 8217:2024, the increasing average viscosity could potentially facilitate adoption of ISO 8214:2024. In addition, an increase is also observed for the average cat fines (Al+Si) concentration [Table 3 and 4]. Operators should remain cautious of potential cylinder liner / piston ring wear and ensure good performance of the fuel treatment system.

Sulphur, water and sediments are the main reason that residual fuel samples fail the specification. Throughout 2025, the proportion of samples failing the spec on either cat fines (Al+Si) or sulphur has declined.

RMG380 >0.50%

In contrast with RMG380 0.50%, no significant differences are observed for HSFO deliveries (RMG380 > 0.50%) vs previous quarters [Table 5 and 6].

Overall, the number of out-of-spec samples has significantly declined Q3 2025 vs previous quarters. Water, density, viscosity and cat fines (Al+Si) are the main reasons that the samples do not meet the specification

Related: Bureau Veritas: VeriFuel Fuel Quality Testing Annual Report 2024

Photo credit: Bureau Veritas
Published: 23 October, 2025