The port of Mauritius has recorded an increased in bunker sales volume for the financial year ended 2017, according to Mauritius Port Authority (MPA) data.
A total of 404,837 metric tonnes (mt) of marine fuel were delivered to vessels in 2017, 39.1% up from the volume of 291,143 mt during 2016.
Of the total 2017 bunker sales volume, 115,167 mt (-12.4%) was delivered via pipeline while 289,670 mt (+81.5%) was via bunker barges.
According to MPA, the fall in bunker deliveries via pipeline “may be deduced that bunkering by pipeline might have been more vulnerable to fluctuations in supply price and selling price as compared to major bunkering hubs.”
The growth in bunker sales by barges was due to two factors.
“The expansion could be attributed to the fact that we had four barges operational at Port Louis in 2016 namely: MT Gulf Star, MT Elise (2016), MT Hakassan (2016) and MT Sarah (2016). MT Congo was also operational until September 2016,” explained MPA.
“Besides, MPA offered additional incentives for vessels calling at Outer Harbour for bunkering effective August 2016 (validity: 1 year).”
While the number of bunker calls by pipeline decreased by 11.5% in 2017 when compared to the previous year, the corresponding calls by barge rose 37.8% in the similar period.
The total number of vessels that received bunkers at Port Louis grew 1.3% to 1,839 calls in 2017.
Published: 23 January, 2018
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MPA preliminary investigations revealed that the affected marine fuel was supplied by Glencore Singapore Pte Ltd who later sold part of the same cargo to PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte Ltd.
‘MPA had immediately contacted the relevant bunker suppliers to take necessary steps to ensure that the relevant batch of fuel was no longer supplied. Further investigations are currently on-going,’ it informs.
