Monjasa completes its 1st blending, supply of B20 marine biofuel in UAE

Oil and shipping group Monjasa has successfully completed its first blending and supply of marine biofuels in the United Arab Emirates. The project was carried out in close collaboration with international energy company Uniper and biodiesel producer Neutral Fuels.

Monjasa announced May 4 that, in March, the Monjasa-owned tanker Monjasa Server went alongside the Great Eastern Shipping Co. tanker Jag Prerana off Dubai and successfully supplied a total of 233 metric tons of B20 marine biofuel. Ahead of delivery, the product blending was performed on board the Monjasa Server.

The B20 marine-biofuel blend consists of 20 percent biodiesel made exclusively from cooking oil waste and 80 percent very-low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) and meets ISO 8217 marine-fuel standards.

Monjasa stated that it is determined to take an active part in meeting the International Maritime Organization’s future carbon emission reduction targets, which depends completely on the ongoing and future transition to alternative fuels.

“Monjasa’s role in this transition is to become an enabler of the logistics of environmentally friendly fuels,” said Jesper Nielsen, group responsibility director. “In oil and shipping we are all connected and the journey towards offering alternative fuels at scale relies on forming new partnerships and exploring where Monjasa can add most value to the maritime infrastructure in the short, medium and long term.”

Commercial director at Monjasa Middle East & Africa, Moustapha El Maghlouk, added, “By promoting new partnerships with Uniper and Neutral Fuels, Monjasa is present at the production site and throughout the supply chain to understand the full spectrum of logistics needed to make this project a success. With our combined synergies across fuel sourcing, production and logistics, we are confident of building a scalable biofuel option and we are already receiving interest for biofuel blends from several shipping companies operating in the Middle East.”

Emanuele Gallone, business development manager at Uniper Energy DMCC, said, “We are thankful to Monjasa for successfully enabling the logistics and ensuring progress on our joint mission to support the decarbonization of the shipping industry. Handling biofuels differs significantly from traditional marine fuels and it has been important to Uniper to guarantee safe and seamless delivery at sea to the end user together with Monjasa.”

While becoming an enabler for customers to reduce their carbon footprint through biofuel blends, Monjasa also provides transparency on CO2 emissions across fossil-based fuel products delivered. Through a unique industry role between upstream partners and downstream end users, Monjasa has developed a level of granularity that for the first time provides shipowners with accurate and real-time CO2-emissions data linked to each individual fuel order placed with Monjasa.