Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority is growing the testing necessities for maritime gasoline bought on the port after having traced the origins of the current contaminated bunkers distributed by two suppliers throughout February and March 2022. While saying that they decided all of the mandated testing had been executed and that the chemical substances within the current contamination, Chlorinated Organic Compounds, are uncommon, the MPA is now together with it in its testing mandates.
Warnings over vessels experiencing issues associated to fuel contamination began to surface in early March of this yr with the supply of the issue linked to Singapore, the world’s largest bunker market. Reports stated that vessels had been experiencing gasoline system failures of their auxiliary engine which resulted in a lack of energy, propulsion, and blackouts. The gasoline system failures had been ensuing from the seizure of the gasoline pumps and plunger in addition to barrel corrosion, which the testing labs shortly decided was as a consequence of gasoline contaminated with excessive ranges of COCs.
By the time the issue was remoted, the MPA reported that it believed 200 vessels bunkering in Singapore obtained the contaminated gasoline with about 80 ships reporting gasoline pump or engine issues. Fuel testing firm, Veritas Petroleum Services (VPS) offered extra particulars saying that it believed $120 million value of High Sulphur Fuel Oil representing over 140,000 metrics tons had been delivered from two suppliers and 12 supply barges between mid-February to mid-March 2022, containing chlorinated hydrocarbon contaminants of as much as 2,000 ppm.
The MPA is confirming earlier studies that the gasoline was equipped by Glencore Singapore, which had additionally bought a few of the gasoline in bulk to PetroChina International, which was additionally supplying it to vessels in Singapore. The forensic testing additional traced the gasoline via two suppliers, Straits Pinnacle and Unicious Energy, to the supply which was loaded on a tanker on the Port of Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates. From the UAE they reported that gasoline was shipped to floating storage services in Malaysia to be additional blended earlier than it was delivered to storage services in Singapore.
The MPA’s testing included samples from the suppliers in Singapore and again alongside the provision chain tracing the contamination to the tanker loaded with the gasoline within the UAE. They additionally reported that forensic fingerprinting evaluation of the gasoline samples taken from the tanker matched the samples taken from a number of affected ships that had taken HSFO from Glencore and PetroChina.
While the worldwide requirements, which don’t at present require testing for COC, had been noticed, the MPA is encouraging bunker patrons to request enhanced gasoline testing for COC from their bunker suppliers. Effective instantly, the MPA may even embrace COC on the listing of chemical substances to be examined below its high quality gasoline assurance measures. The MPA and the Singapore Shipping Association are at present in discussions with the business on measures to strengthen the standard assurance of bunkers equipped in Singapore and they’re additionally elevating this subject on the worldwide stage.
https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/singapore-increases-fuel-testing-after-tracing-recent-contamination
