Shipergy, the technology-led marine fuels trading company, on Thursday (30 July) announced that it has signed what it believes to be the marine fuel industry’s first energy-adjusted procurement contract. Under the multi-year agreement, signed with a European operator, Shipergy procures and supplies marine fuels across the client’s fleet, with its performance formally benchmarked on the cost per unit of energy delivered, measured in dollars per gigajoule ($/GJ), rather than the industry’s traditional cost per tonne. Shipergy said marine fuel has been bought and sold by the tonne since the industry began, but not all tonnes are equal. The energy content of fuel varies materially between suppliers in the same port, by as much as 5 to 7 per cent for VLSFO, meaning a cargo that looks cheaper on the headline market index can in fact cost more per unit of usable energy. Vessels bunkering lower energy fuel burn more of it to complete the same voyage, with direct consequences for cost, carbon emissions and regulatory compliance. The new contract addresses this directly. For each covered port, a reference energy value is established from Energy Beacon data and agreed between the parties. Each quarter, Shipergy’s achieved cost of energy delivered, calculated from actual invoice values and laboratory-measured Net Calorific Value on every delivery, is compared against the energy-adjusted market benchmark. Where Shipergy delivers a demonstrated saving, the benefit is shared between the parties under a gain-share mechanism, fully aligning the interests of buyer and supplier for the first time in bunker procurement. Supplier selection under the contract is driven by Energy Beacon, Shipergy’s proprietary analytics platform that predicts the energy content of marine fuel by supplier and port before purchase, and ranks firm offers on effective cost per megajoule rather than headline price per tonne. The platform has been independently validated by an external data scientist across mor