CAAS sets out criteria for SAF to be procured, uplifted on flights from Singapore
The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore announced Nov. 5 that it has set out the sustainability and procurement criteria for the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) that Singapore will buy using proceeds from SAF levy and uplift onto flights departing Singapore.
The Singapore Sustainable Aviation Fuel Company Ltd. (SAFCo) shared these criteria Nov. 5 at a briefing to potential SAF suppliers and producers ahead of the first tender, which SAFCo will call by mid-December for delivery in June 2027.
The SAF that Singapore will procure using proceeds from the SAF levy must fulfill two sustainability criteria.
First, the SAF must be eligible under the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, which sets internationally recognized sustainability criteria for cleaner-energy aviation fuels.
Second, the SAF must achieve at least a 40 percent reduction in lifecycle emissions compared with conventional jet fuel.
The 40 percent threshold is benchmarked against thresholds in other jurisdictions and set above the 10 percent minimum under CORSIA.
Setting the threshold at 40 percent will allow Singapore to procure SAF produced using feedstocks and pathways that deliver more impactful emission reductions while maintaining access to a wide range of current and emerging feedstocks and pathways, such as SAF produced via the hyydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) pathway with used cooking oil and animal fats as feedstock.
SAFCo will assess the tender bids based on price competitiveness, supply-chain resilience and delivery certainty, as well as sustainability-documentation capability and ability to support Singapore’s SAF ecosystem development.
The SAF tender will be open to all SAF suppliers and producers that can demonstrate the ability to deliver the SAF into Changi Airport through the existing Changi Airport fuel hydrant installation infrastructure and meet the applicable technical quality, as well as sustainability and procurement requirements.
As the SAF procurement is novel, SAFCo will allow more time for potential bidders to prepare their proposals and submit their bids.
SAFCo may award contracts to one or more suppliers, with successful tenderers to deliver the SAF in blended form from June 2027.
Today, 15 companies attended the briefing to potential suppliers and producers.
The first SAF tender will be for an initial volume of 20,000 to 30,000 metric tons, as part of SAFCo’s portfolio approach comprising term contracts and spot purchases.
The initial volume will allow SAFCo to assess market response and inform subsequent procurement as volumes ramp up.
More tenders will be called later.
“CAAS is encouraged by the strong industry interest in the first tender for SAF to be procured using proceeds from the SAF levy,” said Han Kok Juan, the director-general of CAAS. “Singapore is taking a practical and balanced approach to decarbonizing aviation, one that delivers meaningful emission reductions while maintaining the air hub’s competitiveness. We are putting this approach into practice through the implementation of a nationally mandated SAF levy at affordable rates and the centralized procurement of SAF at acceptable standards. We hope that our approach can serve as a meaningful pathfinder for aviation decarbonization and useful point of reference for other countries that are working out their own approaches based on their respective circumstances and considerations.”
SAFCo CEO Tan Seow Hui added, “The challenge with scaling SAF is not simply securing fuel. It is building a trusted market that can connect demand, supply, sustainability assurance and environmental attributes in a way that works in practice. Over the past year, SAFCo has been putting these foundations in place and, through our voluntary procurement trial, testing them in a real operating environment. This first procurement using SAF levy proceeds is where those foundations begin to translate into scale. Our priority is to build a competitive, credible and resilient procurement program that broadens access to SAF supply, delivers meaningful emissions reductions and lays the foundations for Singapore’s SAF ecosystem to grow over the longer term.”
