Fuelsure Transparency Index 2026

Marine fuel is typically bought and sold on a price per ton basis. But price alone does not reflect what bunkering really costs. Consider two suppliers:

• Supplier A: $600 per ton plus delays, quantity shortfalls, and recurring claims.

• Supplier B: $601 per ton, delivered on time, within tolerance and with no disputes.

On paper, Supplier A appears cheaper. In practice, once delay, disruption, claim handling, and energy delivered are accounted for, Supplier A is materially more expensive. Fuelsure’s analysis of thousands of bunker deliveries and claims shows that the true cost of bunkering is driven not only by invoice price, but by how much usable energy is delivered, how reliably fuel meets specification, how much operational disruption occurs, and how quickly disputes are resolved when issues arise. Small per-ton inefficiencies compound rapidly at fleet level and, when scaled across global bunker volumes, translate into multi‑billion‑dollar costs for the industry.

This report introduces the first edition of the Fuelsure Transparency Index, a framework for understanding why these hidden costs arise. Rather than treating quantity, quality, and delay problems as isolated incidents, Fuelsure’s platform shows that bunker risk follows predictable behavioural patterns linked to fuel type, port conditions, supplier practices and documentation quality. Understanding these patterns is the key to lowering the true cost of fuel.

Download The Report Here: