Singapore: VPS seminar presents global 2024/2025 marine fuel consumption & off-spec trends
- Published
by Admin
A series of topical subjects including the current marine fuels landscape, case studies of contamination, and importance of advanced screening beyond ISO 8217 specs were presented at a VPS seminar in Singapore on Thursday (18 September).
Captain Rahul Choudhuri, President Strategic Partnerships, highlighted persistent reliance on Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO) and rising off-spec risks such as catfines and contaminants during his session Fuel Quality, New Fuels Challenges & Decarbonisation.
Captain Choudhuri noted VLSFO remaining as main fuel consumed (45%) by the international commercial fleet; compensated by pickup in High Sulphur Fuel Oil (HSFO), Ultra Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (ULSFO), Marine Gas Oil (MGO) and especially biofuel.
“My take is that existing fuels are here to stay for some time to come and is therefore important to continue to understand them as well,” he stated.
Off-spec Trends – Catfines for VLSFO ‘exceedingly high’ for 2025
In the seminar, Captain Choudhuri shared VPS data showing off-spec fuel characteristics of different bunker grades and noted typical off-spec parameters vary by marine fuel type (MGO/VLSFO: pour point; HSFO: density; VLSFO: sulphur, viscosity, water, pour point, aluminium, silicon, catfines etc.).
Though off-spec cases of VLSFOs have been pegged to around 5% over several years, he pointed off-specs of catfines for VLSFO stood out “by a wide margin” in 2025 and have been “exceedingly high”.
“Just two weeks ago, we released a circular that looked at this case of high catfines in six international worldwide ports,” he explained.
“Such high levels of aluminium and silicon of 62 to 176 ppm cause a really high risk of wear down of piston rings, cylinder liners, and fuel pumps. It remains a very wise management decision to assess your fuel treatment efficiency in each such case very carefully.”
Bunker Contamination Case Study
Captain Choudhuri further shared an example of a bunker fuel contamination case in February 2025 where a prominent shipowner’s vessel received over 400 metric tonnes (mt) of VLSFO at New York.
Though test results met ISO 8217 specs, the bunker sample failed the Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) headspace screening and eventually a very high number of phenolic contaminants were discovered.
“The vessel had no choice but to use the fuel and experience excessive sludge formation in filters, purifiers. Eventually, the engine shut down, and she was drifting for three days in the U.S. Gulf with oil rig structures nearby,” he said.
Importance of Advanced Screening Beyond ISO 8217 Specs
Moving forward, Captain Choudhuri believed proper contaminant screening and early detection for a vessel’s bunker stem to be of great importance due to the role it plays in ensuring safety of the ship and crew.
“When we talk of marine fuel quality, we invariably talk of the ISO 8217. The challenge the industry faces is that older standards are still being used today. Which really means, poor fuel quality is what you will eventually get,” he stressed.
“How can the shipping industry be so averse to change when a 20-year-old fuel standard that has been withdrawn is still in use? This is a dilemma and a curse, and I can’t see this changing without it being eventually mandated.”
Photo credit: VPS
Published: 22 September 2025
