Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions
Which sectors can the license actually supply?
Four: sea transport, land transport, industrial firms, and power generating plants. That covers ships at port, road fleets, factories and construction sites, and power stations on continuous or standby fuel. Aviation is excluded and sits under a different license.
Why do both DMA and SCOE need to approve this?
The DMA covers the maritime side, anything involving vessel supply at UAE ports. The SCOE covers the broader energy framework that fuel supply sits inside. Both sign off before Meydan Free Zone issues the license. Dubai Municipality also regulates the sector at the city level.
Can the supplier hold inventory or run physical infrastructure?
The license is for the commercial supply role. Physical delivery flows through licensed distributors, terminals, and bunker operators. Refining, storage terminals, retail forecourts, and standalone distribution each fall under separate licenses, even where the same parent group holds several activities.
How is revenue typically structured in a contract?
Most contracts price against an external benchmark: Platts for marine fuel, regional index for diesel, term-formula for fuel oil. The supplier earns the spread on the physical, plus service income on hedging, delivery, finance, and any value-added logistics layered on top.
Does this overlap with diesel fuel trading or fuel distribution?
There is overlap in product but not in role. Diesel fuel trading (a separate activity) is wholesale commodity trading without an end customer. Fuel distribution (another separate activity) is the downstream logistics role. Fuel supply services is the one signing the supply contract with the operator who burns the fuel.
How to Start a Fuel Supply Services Business with Meydan Free Zone
A ship at Jebel Ali doesn't fuel itself. Neither does the fleet running diesel to Riyadh, the power plant outside the city, or the factory in DIP burning generator fuel through the night. Each one runs on fuel that someone else sourced, priced, and got to them on time. That someone is a fuel supply services business.
The numbers behind those contracts are enormous. The global bunker fuel market alone was worth USD 132.41 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach USD 195.51 billion by 2034, growing at 4.43 percent a year, according to Fortune Business Insights¹.
Dubai sits on top of the volume. Jebel Ali Port, the largest container port in the Middle East Gulf, processed 15.5 million TEU and 5.4 million tonnes of breakbulk in 2024, its highest throughput since 2015 and roughly 18 percent of DP World's global volume, per DP World². For a Dubai-licensed fuel supplier, the global market sets the price and the home port delivers the customers.
Dubai's Trade Infrastructure in NumbersA Dubai-based fuel supplier serves marine, logistics, and industrial customers across the UAE, anchored by the Middle East Gulf's largest container port.
Source: DP World 2025 results announcement and 2026 capital expenditure commitment, via AGBI.
The day-to-day work is contracts, prices, and delivery windows. A marine desk takes a call from a shipping line and quotes a VLSFO stem against the Platts close. A land transport desk negotiates next quarter's diesel for a logistics operator running the Dubai-Riyadh corridor. An industrial team puts together a year of fuel oil for a power plant and another year of generator diesel into a manufacturing zone.
Sourcing, pricing, hedging, finance, delivery, and paperwork. That is the loop. The supplier earns the spread between buy and sell, plus the service margin on top.
One license, four customer types: shipping lines, road fleets, power plants, and factories. The same desk can quote a bunker stem on a Platts assessment in the morning and a year of generator diesel into a manufacturing zone in the afternoon.
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Who is this for?
- Marine fuel suppliers: Businesses contracting bunker fuel and marine gas oil into shipping lines, bulk carriers, container vessels, and tankers calling at UAE and regional ports.
- Land transport fuel suppliers: Operators supplying diesel and lubricants to logistics fleets, freight operators, and commercial vehicle operators on long-haul and regional routes.
- Industrial and power fuel suppliers: Firms contracting fuel oil, diesel, and lubricants to industrial firms and power generating plants, including standby generator fuel and continuous-supply contracts.
Meydan Free Zone offers 100% foreign ownership, zero percent corporate tax on qualifying income, full profit repatriation, and a fully digital licensing process. It is a regulated, cost-efficient base for a fuel supply services business, in a country at the centre of regional trade routes, with deep port and industrial demand and one of the world's biggest container ports inside the city.
4661.94 - Fuel Supply Services
Under this activity, your business is licensed to supply fuel, lubricants, and other operational materials to sea and land transport companies, industrial firms, and power generating plants.
A fuel supply services business sits between the refineries that produce fuel and the operators that burn it to keep moving and running. Its job is to source the products, lock in supply on spot, term, or index-linked contracts, and get physical delivery to ports, fleets, plants, and sites through licensed distributors.
The customers span different sectors: shipping lines and vessel operators at sea, logistics and freight fleets on land, and industrial firms and power plants drawing fuel oil, generator diesel, and lubricants. Revenue comes two ways, the margin between buy and sell, and service income from contract structuring, hedging, and operational logistics.
The license is for one thing: contracting fuel, lubricants, and operational materials directly to sea, land, industrial, and power customers. Jet fuel supply to airlines is a separate aviation activity. Airside fuelling, retail forecourts, refining, terminal operations, standalone distribution, and pure wholesale commodity trading each sit under their own license.
If you supply end customers in the four sectors above, you are in. Anything else needs a different code.
Third-Party Approval: Yes. Pre-approval from the Dubai Maritime Authority (DMA) and the Supreme Council of Energy (SCOE) is required before a license is issued by Meydan Free Zone.
Anti-Money Laundering Compliance: This business activity is exempt from AML compliance requirements.
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Citations
¹ Fortune Business Insights. Bunker Fuel Market Size And Share | Outlook Report, 2034. Fortune Business Insights, 2026.
² DP World. DP World Records Highest Cargo Volumes at Jebel Ali Port Since 2015. DP World, 2025.
