The Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore has concluded its investigation into the source of the contaminated bunker oil delivered to 200 ships by Glencore and PetroChina.
Photo: Ed /AP
The case involving 200 ships taking delivery of contaminated bunker oil from Glencore and PetroChina in Singapore now leads the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) to require additional tests of bunker fuel, the authority writes in a status update on the case.
The MPA and the Singapore Shipping Association (SSA) are currently said to be in talks with the bunker industry on how to strengthen supervision of bunker fuel deliveries in Singapore, the world’s largest bunker port.
The MPA and SSA will call upon a group of industry specialists to work out a list of chemicals that the bunker must also be tested for, and the parties will need to agree on a number of thresholds.
Apparently, the problem is, even though all bunker suppliers with an MPA bunker license are already obligated to carry out a series of tests on fuel deliveries according to the ISO 8217 standard, the current standard test doesn’t detect the contamination present in this particular case.
[As] the current international standards do not require tests for COC, the contamination was not promptly detected
MPA
”[As] the current international standards do not require tests for COC [chlorinated organic compounds, -ed.], the contamination was not promptly detected,” the MPA writes in its statement.
According to the MPA, both Glencore and PetroChina have halted deliveries of the contaminated high-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) that Glencore bought in January and February this year and since delivered to 200 ships.
When the contaminated bunker was detected, the MPA was notified on March 14. The authority hasn’t head of ships taking delivery of contaminated fuel from the two suppliers since March 31, aside from the 200 ships.
”Of these [200 ships, -ed.], about 80 ships have reported various issues with their fuel pumps and engines. MPA has conducted fuel sample tests for some of the affected ships and found elevated levels of COC in their fuel samples,” the MPA said on a previous occasion.
”This is the first case of fuel contamination due to high concentration levels of COC reported in Singapore in the past two decades.”
WPO has asked the MPA what will be the next step in the case, and whether Glencore and PetroChina will be met with fines or other sanctions.
According to testing company VPS, the case pertains to a volume of more than 140,000 tonnes at a market value of approximately USD 120m.
English edit: Jonas Sahl Hollænder
