The following is a statement from the International Bunker Industry Association:
The first edition of IBIA’s “Best practice guidance for suppliers for assuring the quality of bunkers delivered to ships” was welcomed by the 72nd session of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 72) last week, where it was agreed that it would be a good basis for the development of IMO guidance.
For the past few years, an IMO Correspondence Group on Fuel oil quality (CG) has been working on developing draft guidance on best practice for assuring the quality of fuel oil delivered for use on board ships. The initial aim was to produce a trinity of such guidance documents: one for bunker purchasers/users; one for bunker suppliers; and one for Member States/coastal States. However, at MEPC 69, the CG’s work on best practice for suppliers was paused and the Committee agreed that IMO should encourage the supply industry to develop a best practice document and present it to MEPC in due course.
Introducing our document to MEPC 72 last week, IBIA’s IMO representative, Unni Einemo said: “We have developed an IBIA best practice guidance for bunker suppliers, which, simply put, aims to ensure that the quality of bunkers delivered to ships meets the agreed purchase specifications and applicable global and local regulations. While the vast majority of bunkers delivered meet these requirements, quality can be unintentionally adulterated at various stages in the supply chain. The underlying principle when developing IBIA’s guidance was to identify and mitigate quality risks at all stages from the production of bunkers to delivery to ship.”
IBIA proposed that our paper could form the base document if the Committee wished to have a trinity of IMO best practice guidance document with regards to fuel quality. There was broad consensus that this was desirable and that IBIA’s document should form the basis for developing the IMO guidance for suppliers.
Several member states complemented IBIA’s best practice document, however, some raised concerns about our document making references to ISO 4259 in the chapter on testing and interpretation of test results, arguing that only appendix VI of MARPOL Annex VI (sulphur verification procedures’ for the MARPOL sample) should be referenced. There is also resistance to making references to ISO standards in the chapter on representative sampling, as many believe only the IMO Guidelines in Resolution MEPC.182(59) for taking the MARPOL sample should be referenced.
MEPC 72 agreed to use IBIA’s best practice document as the basis and invite member states and organisations with observer status at the IMO to submit their comments to it to MEPC 73 (October 2018), so that development of an IMO best practice guidance can progress at that session.
MEPC 73 will also discuss draft best for Member States/coastal States developed by the IMO Correspondence Group on Fuel oil quality, which IBIA participates in.
IBIA once again calls on our members to implement the best practices and let us know how workable it is. We are open to revising the document in due course in response to constructive feedback and evolving needs.
In light of the document now also forming the basis to develop IMO guidance, industry feedback is essential. You can download a copy of IBIA’s best practice guidance for bunker suppliers on this link.
On a separate note, the draft best practice for bunker purchasers/users which IBIA co-sponsored with ICS and INTERTANKO was approved at MEPC 72 last week, with only minor amendments made.
This will be issued along with an MEPC circular asking IMO Member Governments to bring it to the attention of their Administration, industry, relevant shipping organisations, shipping companies and other stakeholders.
Published: 26 April, 2018
Firm hopes to leverage partnership in Greece as a springboard to expand into neighbouring and overseas markets including Europe and China, says Robin Van Elderen, Regional Head Bunkers, Europe, Sing Fuels.
Singapore can help less developed countries in SouthEast Asia through ‘piloting and scaling fuels and technology as well as a leading hub for green finance’, said DNV Group President and CEO Remi Eriksen.
Octamar™ Ultra HF, Octamar™ Complete, and Octamar™ F35C were found to have improved the fuel economy while reducing exhaust gas and other emissions of marine engines in a series of trials, states report.
Disposal of evidence has resulted in Singapore not being able to provide full details to the United Nationals Panel of Experts which sought information regarding the case, says Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
‘We are proud to be amongst the first to show the successful steps taken by Singapore’s bunkering ecosystem to remain forward thinking and relevant,’ Choong Sheen Mao, Director of EMF, tells Manifold Times.
‘With the launch of a common data infrastructure, Kenoil aims to continue achieving an end to end visibility and transparency on the bunker data supply chain,’ states Kenoil Managing Director.