Americas News
Three Different Suppliers May Have Contaminated Bunkers in Houston: Verifuel
As many as three marine fuel suppliers in Houston may have been carrying bunker fuel contaminated by the substances recently identified by testing firms, according to Bureau Veritas fuel monitoring service Verifuel.
On July 10 VPS announced it had detected 'icyclopentadiene (DCPD) and associated isomers at significantly high levels' in VLSFO samples in Houston.
Several other firms have since reported similar problems, and suggested that the contamination may have originated from a single supplier.
"We as VeriFuel have tested ships' bunker samples from the area containing the same substances from three different suppliers (as per BDNs) but we do not want to make hypothesis about the actual source or terminal etc," a Verifuel representative told Ship & Bunker on Friday.
"A fuel quality testing agency suggested that only one supplier has been involved. It could be that this very supplier was the source and supplied this fuel to other suppliers."
In Singapore's recent HSFO contamination case of February and March 2022, a single supplier, Glencore, was found to have been the source of the contamination, with the product then also being sold on to Petrochina.
