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TL;DR: Shipping companies buy bunker fuel through a structured, increasingly digital process: plan fuel demand, send an RFQ, compare offers, confirm the order, verify the delivery against the bunker delivery note, and settle. Done digitally, the whole chain runs through a procurement platform instead of email and spreadsheets. Whether the shipowner or the charterer pays depends on the charter, and most fleets buy both on the spot market and on term contract.
The short answer
Shipping companies buy bunker fuel by planning fuel demand from their voyage schedules, sending enquiries (requests for quotation, or RFQs) for each required delivery (a "stem") to suppliers, traders or brokers, comparing the offers on price, quality and delivery terms, then confirming the order, verifying the delivery against the bunker delivery note, and settling payment. Done digitally, that entire chain runs through a procurement platform instead of email and spreadsheets. The rest of this page walks through each step and who's involved, as the how-to companion to the bunker procurement guide.
Step by step: the digital bunker buying process
Step 1: Plan fuel demand. Operations teams project consumption from voyage schedules, speed and weather to decide how much fuel each vessel needs and where to take it. Digital systems generate bunker plans per vessel and port window automatically, rather than by manual calculation.
Step 2: Send the enquiry (RFQ). The buyer requests quotes for the stem (the grade, quantity, port and delivery window) from suppliers, traders or brokers. (A "stem" is a single confirmed bunker delivery.) Digitally, one structured RFQ reaches many counterparties at once, instead of separate emails.
Step 3: Compare offers. Comparison is more than $/mt: it weighs credit terms, barge schedule, quality history and, increasingly, carbon cost (EU ETS and FuelEU). Platforms benchmark each offer against live bunker prices so the buyer knows whether a quote is genuinely competitive.
Step 4: Confirm the order. The nomination is sent, terms are fixed, and the order is recorded. Digitally this is an auditable confirmation rather than a buried email thread, so months later you can see exactly what was agreed.
Step 5: Take delivery and verify. Fuel is delivered to the vessel by barge; quantity, density and samples are checked against the bunker delivery note (BDN). Increasingly that document is a digital eBDN, matched automatically against the order to catch discrepancies at delivery.
Step 6: Settle, reconcile, claim if needed. The invoice is matched to the delivered quantity; any discrepancy becomes a documented claim. Digitally, reconciliation is automatic and the evidence is already on file, so claims don't rely on hunting through inboxes.
Who's involved: buyers, brokers, traders, suppliers
- The bunker buyer: usually in-house at the owner or operator; plans demand and makes the purchase.
- The broker: an intermediary who arranges the deal and is paid by commission, without taking title to the fuel.
- The trader: buys and resells fuel, taking on credit risk and a margin; useful for reach and credit.
- The physical supplier: the company that actually delivers the fuel by barge at the port.
Who actually buys the fuel: the owner or the charterer?
It depends on the charter agreement. The party that directs the vessel's commercial trading is usually the one that buys and pays for the bunkers, so it shifts between owner and charterer depending on the charter type:
Whoever holds the budget, the buying process itself is identical; only the party running it changes.
Spot versus contract buying
Shipping companies buy bunkers two ways, and most large fleets do both, using term contracts for a predictable baseline and spot for the rest:
- Spot buying: purchased per stem at the current market price, close to the delivery date. Maximum flexibility to shop each port and time the market, but full exposure to price swings.
- Term contracts: volumes agreed with a supplier over months at a formula-linked price. Predictable supply and often better credit, at the cost of flexibility.
Most desks blend the two and shift the balance as prices move, leaning on contracts when the market is rising and buying more spot when it softens.
Email vs digital platforms: what actually changes
The steps don't change; the tooling does. Here's the before/after:
The gains concentrate at the enquiry-to-confirmation stage and in documentation, where email is slowest and least auditable.
The tools shipping companies use
Three categories of software support this process: procurement workflow platforms (which run the buying cycle end to end), marketplaces (which widen supplier reach), and price-benchmarking tools (which check offers against the market). For a full breakdown of the options and how to choose, see the guide to choosing a bunker management system. ZeroNorth Bunker Procurement covers the workflow end to end: RFQ to settlement with benchmarking and eBDN built in.
The bottom line
Buying bunker fuel digitally isn't a different process; it's the same six steps with the guesswork and admin stripped out. Demand planning, RFQs, offer comparison, ordering, delivery verification and settlement all still happen; what changes is that they run in one auditable system instead of scattered email threads and spreadsheets. The payoff lands exactly where email is weakest: gathering quotes quickly, comparing true total cost, and keeping a record you can stand behind months later. For fleets ready to run the full cycle in one place, with live price benchmarking and eBDN built in, that's what ZeroNorth Bunker Procurement is built to do.
Book a demo to see the digital bunker buying process end to end.
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