Bunkering at Chittagong, Still Defaulting to Singapore Out of Habit?

For years, the standard advice for feeder operators running Chittagong-Colombo was simple: bunker in Singapore before you come, because you won't find low-sulphur fuel here. That's no longer entirely true, but the old habit hasn't fully died out either, and it's worth understanding why. Cargo acceptance and clearance depend on the exact description, HS or UN details where applicable, manifest and bill-of-lading data, receiver or C&F readiness, terminal rules and current Customs or competent-authority instructions. Bunker availability, grade and supplier constraints should be confirmed for the actual ETA.

What's actually available locally

Chittagong has private bunker suppliers running their own barges and oil tankers, delivering IFO, MDO, MGO and lubricants both at the jetties and out at the outer anchorage, some operators can deliver from their own tonnage roughly 7 nautical miles out, which matters for vessels that don't want to come all the way in just to top up. Fuel is generally supplied to ISO 8217 specification, and delivery is meant to comply with MARPOL Annex VI Regulations 14 and 18, the sulphur content and BDN documentation requirements that any port state control officer will check if there's ever a dispute about quality.

The VLSFO story

Before 2020, Chittagong simply didn't have IMO-compliant very low sulphur fuel oil in any real volume, which was a genuine problem once the global 0.5% sulphur cap kicked in on 1 January 2020. Feeder operators running the Chittagong-Colombo-Port Klang circuit, and there are dozens of vessels on that route at any given time, had to load enough VLSFO in Singapore to cover the round trip, since arriving without it meant either burning non-compliant fuel illegally or running short. State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation got authorization to import VLSFO that same year specifically to close that gap, and local suppliers followed. The rate differential on the Chittagong-Colombo leg used to run noticeably higher specifically because of this fuel availability gap.

Why the old habit persists anyway

Local availability solved the compliance problem but not necessarily the cost or reliability one. Singapore remains the deeper, more liquid bunker market with more suppliers competing on price, and a mainline operator's bunker desk will often still default to topping up there out of habit and trading relationships rather than actively shopping the Chittagong market every voyage. That's slowly changing as local suppliers build track record, but if you're chartering into Chittagong and assuming bunkers are a non-issue locally, it's worth actually getting quotes rather than assuming the market has fully normalized.

What to confirm before nominating a local supplier

Ask for the BDN format up front and confirm it states sulphur content explicitly, this is the document a PSC officer will want to see if there's ever a fuel quality question down the line. Confirm whether delivery is jetty-side or barge-to-vessel at anchorage, since that changes your scheduling around tide and pilotage windows. And if the vessel needs a large single uplift, ask directly whether the supplier can cover it from their own storage or whether they're brokering through a refinery import, smaller suppliers sometimes can't guarantee volume on short notice the way the larger groups with their own tanker fleets can.