According to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Glencore, a commodity trading and mining company, was the supplier of contaminated HFSO in Singapore, causing engine problems to several vessels.
On 11 March 2022, a VPS Bunker Alert informed about chlorinated hydrocarbons being found and identified in Heavy Fuel Oil (HSFO) deliveries recently made in Singapore.
Immediately, MPA Singapore started investigating the suspected contamination of bunker fuels supplied to several ships in the port and had ordered the supply of the batch to stop. These bunker fuel contaminations have affected 14 vessels so far and the impact has led to failure of the fuel system to the auxiliary engine, causing loss of power and propulsion creating a blackout.
Accordingly, the Singapore Shipping Association (SSA) also confirmed the issue, reporting that the contaminated bunkers have affected a number of vessels for some shipowners/operators.
Today, on April 13th, MPA Singapore revealed that the affected fuel – a blended product, was supplied by Glencore Singapore Pte Ltd (Glencore). Glencore informed MPA that on receiving reports of its fuel being contaminated, Glencore proceeded to test the fuels supplied by its sources used in its blended product, and discovered that one of them that was sourced from overseas had contained about 15000 ppm of COC. By the time of testing, Glencore had already sold part of the affected fuel to PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte Ltd (PetroChina), which in turn, had supplied to ships in the Port of Singapore.
MPA Singapore says that, to date, Glencore and PetroChina had supplied the affected fuel to about 200 ships in the Port of Singapore. Of these, 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. This is the first case of fuel contamination due to high concentration levels of COC reported in Singapore in the past two decades.
As MPA Singapore informs, bunker fuel supplied in the Port of Singapore must meet the international standards of petroleum products of fuel – International Organization for Standardization 8217 (ISO 8217) [1]. The contaminated fuel purchased by Glencore was in compliance with ISO 8217. Glencore had also performed additional testing of the fuel based on the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D7845 [2]. Both ISO 8217 and ASTM D7845 do not test for COC.
MPA is currently in discussions with the industry on implementing additional fuel quality checks that would screen for unacceptable chemicals. MPA also intends to submit a paper on the fuel contamination with COC to the International Maritime Organization for the members’ awareness.
