IMOS now accommodates up to ten fuel types for each vessel, increasing its previous limit of six as shipping operators manage more varied bunker requirements. The change also applies to time charter contracts, allowing long-term charter records to reflect a vessel’s complete fuel configuration, according to a Veson Nautical update published by Hellenic Shipping News.
The expanded capacity is intended to remove the need for workarounds such as creating duplicate vessel records or assigning new fuels to legacy fuel categories. Users can add fuel types through the existing process and update the relevant vessels. Veson said vessel details and long-term time charters could continue to be maintained without major procedural changes, while historical bunker information would remain attached to the same vessel record.
For vessels configured with up to ten fuels, the update enables IMOS Estimates and Voyages to capture bunker planning, consumption and costs across that broader mix. Veson described the development as a response to successive changes in marine fuels, driven first by sulphur restrictions and subsequently by scrubber use, alternative fuels and carbon regulation.
The report put heavy fuel oil at about 79% of international shipping fuel consumption in 2018, before the International Maritime Organization reduced the sulphur ceiling from 3.50% to 0.50% in 2020. In Singapore, low-sulphur fuel oil increased from less than 1% of bunker sales in 2018 to 63% in 2020. Scrubbers subsequently supported renewed high-sulphur fuel use: HSFO represented 29.5% of fuels tested by Veritas Petroleum Services in 2023, against 54.3% for VLSFO and 14.2% for marine gasoil.
Biofuel blends, LNG, LPG and methanol have further widened the range operators must track. According to the report, biofuel volumes tested by VPS increased by 50% in 2025 to 1.2 million tonnes. The update also cited the inclusion of methane and nitrous oxide in the EU emissions trading system from 1 January 2026 and UK domestic maritime emissions coverage from 1 July 2026. It said the IMO Net-Zero Framework remained under negotiation, with a vote expected in December 2026.