Monjasa, FAMOIL expand marine biofuel logistics in South America, complete 1st supply operation in Peru

Photo: Monjasa

Monjasa announced April 29 that it recently supplied a total of 510 metric tons of B30 marine biofuel to the Cargill-operated dry-bulk carrier Infinity Sky in the Port of Callao, Peru.

This operation marked the first ISCC-certified biofuel supply on the Pacific Coast of South America and the establishment of a scalable second-generation marine biofuel supply chain, according to Monjasa.

This new setup was developed in collaboration with Fuel & Marine Oil Corp. (FAMOIL) and is capable of delivering a total of 12,000 tons to 15,000 tons monthly.

Monjasa said the new Peruvian biofuel option is a natural extension of its existing biofuels operations in Cartagena, Colombia, and forms part of the company’s overall preparations for the changing marine fuels mix.

“Although today’s marine biofuels markets are still emerging slowly, Monjasa is currently in dialogue with several shipowners and operators to arrange both spot and contract-based supplies in Peru and the traditionally busy Port of Callao—an area that has also recently become a popular bunker call-only option for vessels rerouting south due to the ongoing Panama Canal transit restrictions,” the company stated.

“We are excited to keep challenging the status quo and offer new solutions to shipowners who are increasingly looking for ways to decarbonize their vessels,” said Jonas Bruslund, Monjasa’s trading director for the Americas. “Based on our daily conversations with customers, we expect to see more shipowners moving from biofuels trial runs to more regular supplies—and making these fuels more broadly available is the first step of that development. We are all on a steep learning curve and we would like to thank our partners on this first supply operation, FAMOIL and Cargill, who have contributed significantly to reaching this milestone.”

This new low-carbon fuel option in Peru is also another example of global marine fuel suppliers such as Monjasa engaging further into new partnerships across the supply chain.

“As such, this new second-generation biofuel supply chain is a result of the combined efforts by FAMOIL and Monjasa to offer a full-fledged setup,” Monjasa stated. “As shipowners’ biofuel preferences differ, this new collaboration accommodates both very-low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) and high sulfur fuel oil (HSFO)-based biofuel blends as well as availability of pure B100 biodiesel.”

For this first supply operation, the B30 biofuel blend consisted of 30 percent fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) biodiesel and 70 percent VLSFO.

As an ISCC-certified partner, Monjasa said it allows all involved parties to trace feedstock used for the production of biofuels from the point of origin to the end consumer.

In addition, Monjasa said it measures the greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions from each phase of the supply chain and makes this data available to shipowners as well.

Looking ahead, Monjasa said it aims to establish a string of biofuel-supply locations across the region to support the shipping industry in meeting the International Maritime Organization’s 2050 climate-change commitments.