Asia/Pacific News
MPA Revokes Panoil Petroleum's Bunker Craft Operator Licence
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) Monday said that it has revoked the bunker craft operator licence of Panoil Petroleum Pte Ltd (Panoil), Singapore media reports.
The news comes after MPA suspended the harbour craft licences of five bunker tankers operated by Panoil in March, citing irregularities with piping fixtures associated with the vessels' mass flow meter (MFM) setup.
MPA checks are reported to have revealed that unauthorised alterations were made onboard the five bunker tankers.
"The unauthorised alterations were made on the pipelines of the bunker tankers between the MFM and the flow boom. Such alterations allow bunker fuel that have been measured by the MFM to be siphoned out and undermines the accuracy of the readings from the MFM system," said MPA.
"The unauthorised alterations breached the terms and conditions of Panoil Petroleum's bunker craft operator licence."
For the past two years the supplier has ranked at number 10 on MPA's list of top suppliers by volume in the world's biggest bunkering port.
The use of MFMs for MFO bunkering has been in force in Singapore since January 1, 2017, the first and currently only port to mandate such a requirement, having been introduced as part of efforts to crack down on volumetric-based bunker fraud.
