Asia/Pacific News
MPA Revokes Bunker Licences of Hong Fatt Oil Trading and OW Bunker Implicated Tankoil
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) Thursday said it has revoked the bunker supplier and bunker craft operator licences of Hong Fatt Oil Trading Pte Ltd (Hong Fatt Oil Trading) and Tankoil Marine Services Pte Ltd (Tankoil), citing discrepancies and wrongful declarations in their bunker records, as well as unauthorised bunker transfers.
The action was effective Monday February 9, 2015, and means that the two companies are no longer allowed to operate as bunker suppliers and bunker craft operators in the Port of Singapore.
"As part of MPA's ongoing regulatory efforts to ensure the safety, reliability and quality of bunker supplies in Singapore, routine checks were conducted last year on Hong Fatt Oil Trading Pte Ltd and Tankoil Marine Services Pte Ltd," the MPA said.
"MPA's separate investigations into the two companies revealed discrepancies and wrongful declarations in the records kept on board their bunker tankers.
"There were also incidences of transfers of bunkers between bunker tankers that were done without MPA's approval. MPA has therefore decided to revoke the companies' licences as they had breached the terms and conditions of their bunker supplier and bunker craft operator licences."
Last year Tankoil first made headlines in January when it was revealed that for 2013 it had jumped from 66th to 7th on the MPA's list of bunker suppliers ranked by volume.
However in November Tankoil was implicated in an alleged $125 million fraud by Dynamic Oil Trading (DOT), leading to DOT trustees in December saying they were working to make sure the supplier was declared bankrupt.
Tankoil was ranked as Singapore's 6th largest supplier by volume for 2014.
Hong Fatt Oil Trading, meanwhile, in 2012 was ranked in the top 10 bunker suppliers in Singapore by volume, before falling back to 24th in 2013, and 33rd last year.
