Jorgensen: Operators and Owners Need to Think About Bunker Quality, Not Just Price

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Monday December 15, 2014

Operators and owners need to take responsibility for bunker quality issues aboard their vessels, rather than focusing only on price, says International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA) chairman Jens Maul Jorgensen.

“Bunker fuel quality issues are a serious problem that our industry must get to grips with,” he said.

“If they had to run quality products, like those available from ExxonMobil, then all the high sediment, high catalyst fine products wouldn’t get used but this would have an impact on their bottom line, so they’re not interested.”

He also took aim at owners, telling Bloomberg Businessweek that "it would also help if ship owners weren’t so cheap buying fuel.”

“Fuel management on board is getting worse but owners don’t care," he said.

"But they should be more serious about fuel quality because it’s a big problem and it’ll be a bigger one in the future because of the introduction of low-sufur fuel oils.”

The new year is expected to see many companies adopting low-sulfur fuel to comply with Emission Control Areas (ECA), and this could introduce new problems of its own.

One example, he continued, is that many of today's new eco-ships have much more sensitive engines than their older, heavy-fuel-burning counterparts.

Earlier this year, Jorgenson commented that International Maritime Organization (IMO) legislation was needed to combat worsening bunker quality. 

Ship & Bunker News Team
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