British oil major BP and China’s Sinopec Fuel Oil have formed a marine fuels bunkering joint venture (JV), BP Sinopec Marine Fuels Pte Ltd.
Under the deal, the 50-50 percent joint venture, BP Sinopec Marine Fuels Pte Ltd, would be based in Singapore and provide ship fuel storage and sales.
“Based in Singapore, one of the largest and busiest ports in the world, the joint venture will build out from its partners existing bunkering locations and activities. In addition to marine bunkering in Singapore, the joint venture will provide marine bunker sales in key global locations,” the statement said.
The ports served by BP Sinopec Marine Fuels will be: Singapore; Fujairah, United Arab Emirates; Antwerp, Belgium; Rotterdam and Amsterdam in the Netherlands; Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo and Shenzhen, China, according to the statement.
Sources say that the deal's distinguishing feature involves giving Britain-based BP access to Chinese markets, according to a report from Reuters. "BP gives access to their physical locations against getting access to China, which is a very restricted market," said an unnamed trader.
The last 11 consecutive years BP Singapore Pte Ltd. has been the biggest bunker supplier by volume in Singapore, which is also the world's biggest bunker market by volume.