Glencore, accused by the MPA in Singapore for being responsible of supplying bad bunker to 200 ships, declines to comment on the case. Bunker organization IBIA urges members to track the contaminated bunker oil. Shipping company highly affected.
One of the world’s largest raw material and mining companies, Glencore, finds itself in trouble due to accusations of playing a key role as supplier of contaminated bunker oil to 200 ships.
However, Glencore declines to comment on the case.
Therefore, it is unclear whether Glencore collaborates with the authorities and the many shipping firms affected by the bad bunker. And whether the company has been met with compensation claims.
”No comments,” writes Glencore’s press team in an email to WPO.
No comments
GLENCORE
Glencore’s main part in the case was confirmed last week by the Maritime & Port Authority (MPA) of Singapore.
Here, the MPA informed that Glencore and PetroChina have delivered mixed but contaminated bunker oil to ships.
MPA: 200 ships have been supplied
According to the MPA, 200 ships have been provided with the dirty bunker, which is a mixed product contaminated with chlorinated organic compounds (COCs).
”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 pointed out.
”This is the first case of fuel contamination due to high concentration levels of COC reported in Singapore in the past two decades.”
Sources in Singapore tell WPO that Swire Shipping, the former China Navigation, ”is strongly affected with certain ships having come to a halt.”
The information has, however, not been confirmed.
WPO has reached out to Swire Shipping, which has its main office in Singapore. The company deals in logistics and sea transportation within container, breakbulk, heavy lift and project cargo.
IBIA urges tracking of the contaminated bunker
According to media Ship & Bunker, the International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA) has urged its members in the bunker industry to track the bad bunker in order to avoid that the case develops as critically as the bunker scandal from 2018 which originated in Houston, Texas.
”There are two main ways the chlorinated hydrocarbon [which the HSFO fuel is contaminated with, -ed.] problem could spread in the bunker market; either from cargo containing the contaminated HSFO being shipped somewhere else and blended in a bid to dilute the chloride concentration, or attempts to do the same with the contaminated fuel that has been debunkered,” writes the IBIA to its members, according to Ship & Bunker.
MPA’s investigations are still in progress
MPA
”IBIA therefore calls for relevant stakeholders to report to us which ports where ships have, or will, debunker HSFO contaminated with chlorides.”
WPO has asked the MPA what the next step is in the case of Glencore and the contaminated bunker fuel, which, according to test company Veritas Petroleum Services (VPS), concerns a volume of roughly 140,000 tonnes at a market value of approx. USD 120m. And which sanctions options the MPA considers. But the port authority doesn’t wish to reply for the time being.
”MPA’s investigations are still in progress,” reads an email to WPO.
