{
  "id": 14176344,
  "title": "IMOS Fuel Types Expand from Six to Ten to Support Growing Operational Complexity",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/13/imos-fuel-types-expand-from-six-to-ten-to-support-growing-operational",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-13T10:00:55.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Hellenic Shipping News",
    "slug": "hellenic-shipping-news",
    "url": "https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/imos-fuel-types-expand-from-six-to-ten-to-support-growing-operational-complexity/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has expanded the fuel types supported by its International Maritime Organization Standard (IMOS) from six to ten. This change aims to support the growing operational complexity in the shipping industry due to shifting fuel landscapes.\n\nThe fuels powering vessels have undergone significant changes in recent years. Initially, heavy fuel oil made up about 79% of international shipping fuel consumption in 2018. However, regulatory changes led to a reduction in the sulfur limit from 3.50% to 0.50%, pushing the market towards low-sulfur fuel oil (LSFO). LSFO rose from under 1% of bunker sales in 2018 to 63% in 2020. Scrubbers then brought high-sulfur fuel back into the market, with HSFO reaching 29.5% of fuels tested by Veritas Petroleum Services (VPS) in 2023. VLSFO (Very Low Sulfur Fuel Oil) and Marine Gas Oil (MGO) also grew in popularity.\n\nThe fuel landscape has expanded further with the addition of biofuel blends, liquefied natural gas (LNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and methanol. Biofuel volumes tested by VPS rose by 50% in 2025, reaching 1.2 million metric tons. These changes are driven by regulations, with two carbon schemes expanding in 2026: the EU ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) and the UK ETS. These regulations are expected to have a significant impact on the shipping industry.\n\nIMOS now supports up to ten fuel types per vessel, up from six. This change applies to time charter contracts as well, ensuring that long-term charters can reflect the vessel's full fuel configuration. The expansion of fuel types in IMOS requires significant development work to accommodate the additional fuel types. However, this development is necessary to accurately capture bunker planning, consumption, and cost for multi-fuel vessels. Bunker data touches many areas of IMOS, so the change was necessary to keep pace with the shifting fuel landscape in the shipping industry.",
  "summary": "A changing fuel landscape The fuels powering vessels have shifted sharply in recent years, and the first shift was regulatory. Heavy fuel oil made up about 79% of international shipping fuel consumption in 20181 until the International Maritime Organization (IMO) cut the sulfur limit from 3.50% to 0.50% in 2020.2 Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering ...",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}