Asia/Pacific News
Call For Better Bunker Service in Bangladesh
Ship operators have called for an improved, around the clock bunkering service at the country's Chittagong port, local press have reported.
Supply is currently not available on Fridays and Saturdays, or outside of core working hours.
The general secretary of the Chittagong Marine Association (CMA), Dost Mohammad, said the current situation is not only poor for the port's image and could lead to ships avoiding the port, but it forces ships calling at the port to buy their bunkers in Singapore or Colombo.
If bunkering was available around the clock, then "a huge chunk of money spent by shippers for fuel" would instead be spent in Bangladesh.
Private companies are no longer authorised to supply marine fuel and currently, only the Jamuna Oil Company (JOC), which is a subsidiary of the state run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), is authorised to supply fuel to ocean-going vessels.
Seacom Shipping Lines Limited, who have their main office in Chittagong, have said they would like to see more bunker suppliers from both the public and private sectors.
Other ship operators were reported to have asked for the JOC to operate 24 hours a day, and for the reintroduction of a system allowing the sale of fuel directly from oil tankers, which was stopped in 2004 after suspicions of corruption.
"It is a matter of concern that the port which handles some 2,500 ships a year has no round the clock bunkering facilities," Syed Zahur Ahmed, director of operations for Seacom Shipping Lines Limited, told the Financial Express.
