2025 Marine Fuel Review in International Shipping News 28/01/2026 2025 saw another challenging year for global marine fuel quality, as decarbonization legislation took numerous twists and turns, increasing demands upon ship owners and operators across the world. Alongside this, the traditional fossil fuels also raised numerous quality issues. The IMO delayed the vote on the adoption of the Net Zero Framework (NZF) for one year after strong lobbying against the measures, especially from the USA and Saudi Arabia. This has made the next steps for shipping emissions regulation uncertain with re-negotiation now needed in order to overcome the now apparent entrenched split between countries’ positions. However, other areas of decarbonization regulation continue to progress, with a review of CII ratings ongoing at the IMO and annual reduction factors to 2030 agreed upon, but still much to be discussed in the upcoming phase 2. The Mediterranean ECA entered into force in May-25, while the Canadian Arctic, Norwegian Sea and NE Atlantic ECAs are approaching. Meanwhile, EU emissions regulation sees the phase-in of the EU ETS continuing, with a further step-up due in Jan-26, while FuelEU Maritime entered into force in Jan-25, with standards scheduled to tighten over the coming years. The uptake of alternative fuels continued to rise, with alternative fuel capable vessels accounting for over half of orderbook in investment terms. Its estimated by 2030 nearly 20% of the fleet is set to be alternative fuel capable. VPS tested 1.2million mt of biofuels delivered to ships in 2025, a 50% increase on 2024 levels. Plus methanol testing and ethanol testing demand also increased. The delay to the IMO NZF vote extends regulatory uncertainty for shipping and could have some bearing on fueling choices in the short-term, with a lack of a clear signal needed to drive more significant investment in ‘green’ technologies. However, ‘green’ fleet renewal remains a key factor supporting new-build appetite in some sectors (notably containers) and is expected to remain a general underlying theme, driving investment decisions against the backdrop of an ageing fleet and industry efforts to reduce emissions. Flexibility and optionality are current key themes, with continuing progress in the uptake of scrubbers (fitted on 30% of fleet GT), ‘Eco’ engines (36%) and Energy Saving Technologies (44%). From a fossil fuel perspective, VPS issued 37 bunker alerts over 2025, an increase of 37% over 2024, with VLSFOs being the fuel type requiring the highest number of alerts and Singapore being the most frequent port/region providing potentially problematic fuels. VPS witnessed a pandemic of high cat-fine levels in VLSFOs during August, resulting in seven bunker alerts being released for cat-fine levels ranging from 62ppm-176ppm across East Coast USA, Singapore, Algeciras ARA and Port Louis. This issue highlighted the importance of employing fuel system check services to provide elevated protection and risk mitigation for vessels. In addition VPS witnessed numerous flash point issues, which were in the main related to distillate fuels, but also VLSFOs and HSFOs suffered from this problem. In addition, VPS identified, via our new advanced chemical screening service, the contamination of residual-based fossil fuels, by cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL). This non-volatile organic compound, if undetected pre-burn, can cause issues with fuel pumps and exhaust systems and SCR units. The 2025 Ma