---

[Click for enlarged graph of Singapore bunker sales, rolling 12-month trend: Jan 2010 - Sep 2017]

As reported by Bunker Index on Friday, the world's leading bunker port, Singapore, made history in September when marine fuel sales of more than 50 million tonnes over a 12-month period were reached for the first time.

The graph accompanying this article shows the rolling 12-month trend since the start of the decade, and indicates that during this period, 12-month sales rose by 13,495,400 tonnes, or 36.9 percent, from 36,579,400 tonnes in January 2010 (for the period February 2009 to January 2010) to 50,074,800 tonnes in September 2017 (for October 2016 to September 2017).

Rolling 12-month sales surpassed 49 million tonnes for the first time in February 2017, and took a further seven months to reach the 50 million-tonne mark.

Significantly, the graph also shows that while it took 62 months (from October 2010 to December 2015) for sales to rise from 40 to 45 million tonnes, it only took 21 months - almost a third of the time - for volumes to jump another 5 million tonnes.

In a comparison of both periods, the average monthly increase between October 2010 and December 2015 was 80,645 tonnes, whilst during the 21-month period between December 2015 and September 2017, the average monthly rise was 238,095 tonnes - just shy of a quarter of a million tonnes.

Meanwhile, in an analysis of products sold between October 2016 and September 2017, the data shows that 380 centistoke (cSt) sales made up 37.31 million tonnes, or 74.5 percent, of total sales.

Sales of 500 cSt over the 12-month period were 10.15 million tonnes, or 20.3 percent, whilst combined sales of low-sulphur marine gas oil (MGO) and higher-sulphur MGO were 1.99 million tonnes, or 4.0 percent, with low-sulphur MGO volumes at 1.26 million tonnes, or 2.5 percent.

Image: Singapore bunker sales: rolling 12-month trend Jan 2010 - Sep 2017. Credit: Illustration data from Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).