Bunkering: Canary Islands vie for supremacy in the Mid-Atlantic amid operational pressures in Europe and Africa

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The pullback in Brent barrels to $85.53 and a physical fuel shortage at Northern ports are reshaping demand for maritime refuelling at the Archipelago’s hubs. The global marine bunkering market is in a phase of operational readjustment driven by crude price volatility and supply tightness in Europe and Africa’s main provisioning locations.

Energy transport geopolitics continues to strengthen the Archipelago’s geographic role as a support point for intercontinental traffic. The persistence of attacks on tankers and LNG carriers seeking to access the Suez Canal forces the crude fleet coming from the Middle East to maintain longer routes. “The diversion of additional ton-miles requires a higher global volume of bunker, favouring the operational intensity of the providers that work in the Gran Canaria and Tenerife quays,” a source familiar with Intercop in Las Palmas said.

Brent prices have eased 4.1% to $85.53 after a tactical truce between the US administration and Tehran. However, the fall in the raw-material price has not translated into a uniform easing for international freight rates, as availability tensions persist in Northern Europe hubs and the blockade maintained by Houthi militias in the Red Sea continues.

In the Atlantic influence zone, the port of Las Palmas is consolidating as a strategic supply node directly competing with Gibraltar, Tanger Med and South African ports. The immediate shortage of product in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) area—where deliveries require advance notice of between five and seven days—shifts part of opportunistic bunkering demand toward the island position. The price gap reflects this picture: while refined product in Rotterdam becomes more expensive amid local tensions in marine diesel fuel (LSMGO), approaching $1,207 per tonne, the Canary market is seeking to lock in competitive margins to capture traffic diverted away from the route via the Cape of Good Hope.

VLSFO—very low sulphur fuel oil—price fluctuations further intensify the reshuffling of supply chains. The rebound recorded in Gibraltar, with increases of $27 per tonne, and in Durban, with rises of $23, narrows the cost differences for scale between the north of the continent and Mid-Atlantic stations. For the merchant fleet sailing along Africa’s coastline while avoiding the Bab el-Mandeb strait, refuelling options are constrained by the marked premiums demanded in southern Africa, making Canary supply stations a critical stop to optimise vessels’ payload capacity.

The differential between traditional fuel and lower-emission blends adds an analytical layer for shipping companies operating in the Archipelago. The B30-VLSFO biofuel quotation has deepened its discount versus conventional product in the strait, reaching $151 per metric tonne. This pricing dynamic is beginning to shape supply strategies for fleets subject to European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) regulations and the mandates of the FuelEU Maritime directive, which require increasing decarbonisation intensity on voyages with origin or destination in European Union ports.

The evolution of the heavy fuel oil (HSFO) segment shows a downward pattern after lower-bid operations were set in Dutch markets at $522 per tonne. This gap versus VLSFO has widened the ‘Hi5’ differential to $121 per tonne. The expansion of this economic margin benefits vessels equipped with exhaust gas scrubbing systems (scrubbers), a ship profile with a strong presence on transatlantic routes for bulk carriers and container ships that call in Canary waters.

Bunkering: Canarias disputa el liderazgo en el Atlántico Medio ante tensiones operativas en Europa y África was published first on canarymaritime.com.

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