Seafaring history is rewriting itself along the shining waterside of Singapore‘s Marina Bay and Le Havre’s historic quaysides. French President Emmanuel Macron and Singaporean leaders announced an “enhanced maritime partnership” over a glitzy two-day trip to the city-state toward the end of last month. The “enhanced maritime partnership” will propel the world shipping sector onto the course of greener, wiser seas.
At the center of this deal is a bold pilot project: the globe’s initial bio-methane bunkering trial. Should all go as planned, tankers will bunker on biomethane, a carbon-zero marine fuel alternative, in Singapore, the world’s busiest transshipment port. This is a daring experiment, reminiscent of the historic ammonia bunkering in March at the same port, which stunned observers by demonstrating the commercial feasibility of unconventional fuels.
This’s not just cleaner shipping,” remarks Eric Banel, Singapore Director General for Maritime Affairs, Fisheries and Aquaculture. “It’s about having a strong supply chain, inspecting the fuel, and using global standards that can be used everywhere.” Singapore is not only trying to show that biomethane can safely power container ships, but also to set the standard for all other green bunkers.
Joining hands with the Singaporean government and port authorities is Marseille-based shipping titan CMA CGM, whose fleet alone transports upwards of 2 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of cargo annually. The sustainability head at the company asserts that combined biomethane certification will spur sectoral uptake of digital tracking and carbon-accounting technology—major ingredients in the decarbonization race for an industry that accounts for almost 3% of the world’s COâ‚‚ emissions.
However, the solution extends beyond fuel. A second pilot will connect France’s HAROPA Port cluster—the Le Havre, Rouen, and Paris ports in one cluster—to Marseille-Fos, France‘s leading seafood port of call. With state-of-the-art information communication between ship and shore, port stops became streamlined, paperwork fell to almost zero, and real-time tracking became the norm. What is the ultimate goal? The goal is to eliminate days of delays caused by paperwork. Along the way, we aim to save millions of dollars—and dozens of tons of carbon dioxide—for ships, terminals, and consumers.
For Singapore, which processes over 36 million TEUs per year, digitalization is not new. The city-state’s “Next Generation Port” plan already includes the use of artificial intelligence to forecast ship arrival times and autonomous cranes to lift and move containers. What is new is cross-continent testing of data harmonization standards. If Le Havre’s computerized customs declarations are able to integrate smoothly with Singapore’s port community system, then frictionless, paperless travel for any ship calling at either port could be the reality.
France itself has many years of experience encouraging green hydrogen and ammonia as the fuels of the future—just breaking open one of the biggest offshore wind-to-hydrogen schemes in Europe on the coast of Normandy. By testing out biomethane as well as ammonia, the French-Singaporean alliance has its bases covered, with several avenues to net-zero shipping.
Industry watchers are anxiously waiting. If the Singaporean bunkering barge is able to supply biomethane to the CMA CGM container vessel, it will be a milestone: the very first commercial maritime route powered by a green fuel. From a business and technical perspective, the seamless digital “handshake” between HAROPA and Marseille-Fos systems, demonstrating real-time coordination even in remote ports, is equally groundbreaking.
See a world where a ship moves from Marseille to Singapore and never handles a paper bill of lading,” says Dr. Isabelle Martin, a maritime economist at the Sorbonne. “That day is coming on the horizon—and it can do for the logistics of international trade what it would do: make them quicker, more transparent, and much less dirty.”.
As the sun sets in the Straits of Singapore and ripples across Europe’s northern rivers, two seafaring navies embark on a journey into unexplored territories. Their compass consistently steers towards sustainability, innovation, and security. And for every kilowatt-hour of clean energy released and every terabyte of data transmitted, they sail toward an industry long bound to convention—but now poised to embrace a new era of possibility.
