21 October - 23 October
Hilton Rotterdam Hotel
ARACON 26 will once again bring together senior executives, technical experts, policymakers and innovators to discuss the ‘state of play’ for the global marine fuels sector – and with a close focus on the challenges and issues impacting the world second largest bunker market, the (Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp) region.
Aracon26 Programme
Programme details are updated regularly and are subject to change as new speakers are confirmed and themes developed.
If you feel you could make a significant contribution to the programme, please email Lesley Bankes-Hughes at [email protected] or call +44 1295 814455 to discuss this further.
(Premium members: log in to unlock your 10% discount on the standard price to £1,255.50)
Welcome Coffee
ARACON 26 will once again bring together senior executives, technical experts, policymakers and innovators to discuss the ‘state of play’ for the global marine fuels sector – and with a close focus on the challenges and issues impacting the world second largest bunker market, the (Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp) region.
2025 was a tough year for the bunker sector but 2026 has already brought a new set of complicated problems to the table. As always, ARACON will provide sharp insights on regulation, fuel quality, technology, AI and commercial practices, and this year it will ask if the industry needs to undertake a ‘root and branch’ evaluation of its business model and structures in order to adapt to a world where geopolitical, energy supply and trade uncertainties are increasingly the norm – and energy transition pathways are perhaps becoming more difficult to follow.
With a conference programme featuring industry leaders and experts in the marine fuels sector, ARACON will seek to provide a focused and useful SWOT analysis of the bunker business in 2026, with each session keeping the premise of ‘doing business better – or differently’ at the centre of the discussions.
The global bunker market has had to withstand some significant operational and commercial shockwaves this year, with events in the Strait of Hormuz and wider Middle East region impacting shipping and bunkering operations and putting marine fuel supply under pressure.
This opening session will look at what changed this year for the bunker industry, in terms of buyer requirements and strategies, sanctions, bunkering locations, fuel avails and pricing. From a commercial perspective, higher bunker prices have boosted trader and physical supplier revenues, but in some locations where fuel supply has been tight, companies have chased down prices to secure deals.
Panellists will consider the lessons to be learned from 2026, and whether market changes are temporary or here for the longer term.
The implementation of the EU Emissions Trading System and FuelEU Maritime means that compliance with regulatory mandates is now a key priority for shipping and marine fuel companies. This session will discuss how the industry has responded to these obligations, as well as its strategies for compliance, such as vessel pooling. The UK ETS is now in the regulatory mix and other national and regional schemes could also come into play, while the slow transposition of the EU’s revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) is also influencing fuel and bunkering location decisions.
ARACON 2026 will take place just before MEPC 85 where Member States may – or may not – finally determine the future of the IMO’s Net Zero Framework – a proposal which has polarised opinion in the global maritime sector. However, while consensus on a GHG reduction regulation with global reach has still to be achieved, the IMO has moved forward on establishing Emission Control Areas, with the Mediterranean ECA coming into force in May 2025 and a North Atlantic ECA taking effect in September 2028. The scope and requirements of these ECAs will influence fuel purchasing decisions.
This session will consider how companies are integrating regulatory compliance into their workflows and if compliance strategies can have a commercial upside.
While Session 1 will provide the macro view of a challenging geopolitical and, by extension, commercial landscape this year, this session will take a close look at the dynamics of the ARA market. It will examine how the repercussions of global conflicts have impacted cargo flows through ARA ports, bunker prices and procurement choices, and arbitrage opportunities.
Following through from the previous discussions on regulation, speakers will also discuss how this is affecting purchasing strategies in the ARA market, particularly in relation to biofuels. There will also be discussion on how the first year of the mass flow meter mandate for bunker barges at the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp has worked in practice. Has it introduced more transparency into the delivery process in the ARA market and what has been the feedback on its implementation among maritime stakeholders?
One of the ‘mainstays’ of ARACON is its focus on bunker fuel quality and this year’s conference will again discuss trends in fuel quality from a global standpoint as well as with reference to the ARA market. Supply tightness as a result of the Iran-U.S. war which started in February led to some alerts on bunker quality, notably in relation to VLSFO supplied in some Asian ports, so this session will look at quality issues in VLSFO blends as well as the other key conventional marine fuel grades.
As the market uptake of biofuels gains traction, panellists will also take a closer look at the quality issues seen in different biofuels as well as the key question of their provenance. Keeping to the conference theme of doing business better, speakers will also address advances in fuel quality testing.
The legal considerations associated with bunkering, covering areas such as bunker quality and quantity disputes, charterparties, bunker supply agreements and the impact of environmental regulations will also be debated in this session.
As the shipping industry moves through its own energy transition which will require the adoption of new fuels, factors relating to the purchase and supply of these fuels will also come to the fore. As such, experts will consider how these issues should be addressed in contractual provisions.
Although certainty on a global regulation on GHG emissions has been seen as a necessary pivot point for shipping’s decarbonisation, the reality is that EU regulation is proving to be an effective driver for the shift to new fuels. This session will reflect on new fuel uptake on a global basis, but the primary focus will be on developments in the ARA market. How are traders and physical suppliers working with buyers to navigate the energy transition, how is the bunker industry reshaping to accommodate the demand for new as well as conventional fuels, and how are shipping and bunker companies facing the challenge of training a workforce to sell, procure and deliver a raft of different fuels?
Other key questions will be the longevity of fossil-based fuels and whether smaller traders and physical supply companies will have the financial heft to survive in a future era of much more expensive and complex bunker fuels.
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