Global marine fuel supplier and trading firm Peninsula is celebrating its 30th year in operation, and sees diversification of its business as crucial to further expansion in its next phase.

The firm has grown rapidly to position itself firmly among the very top bunker companies in the world, with sales volumes jumping to about 20 million mt last year. 

The company hosted a wide range of bunker-industry stakeholders in London on Tuesday evening for its annual IE Week party, the main theme of which was marking 30 years since the firm’s launch in Gibraltar in 1996.

Ship & Bunker spoke to COO Kenny MacLean for his view on Peninsula’s future expansion.

“We’ve come from being a very small back-to-back trader in Gibraltar to where we are today,” MacLean said.

“Looking ahead, I think we see complexity; we need to be smart, we need to be plugged in to how we can expand the business.

“Diversification will be key. The people doing the same thing day in and day out in this industry are probably not going to do terribly well in the margin environment that we’re in right now.”

When it comes to the diversification of the types of fuels the company deals in, Peninsula has already made significant strides.

Its 12,500 m3 LNG delivery vessel the Levante LNG is understood to be now operating near its full capacity in the Western Mediterranean. The company is also expanding its fleet with the addition of an 18,000 m3 LNG bunker vessel in Q1 2027. 

Through its sister company, Hercules Tanker Management, Peninsula will introduce several ‘ultra-spec’ bunker vessels capable of supplying biofuel blends up to B100 and methanol.

As of late last year the company is also operating a barge in Belgian waters capable of both running on and delivering methanol, and the firm is in the process of expanding biofuel blending and storage capacity in Rotterdam.