Asia/Pacific News
Mass Flow Meters Mean We're Lifting More Bunkers in Singapore, Says Shipping Company
With use of mass flow meter (MFM) technology for MFO bunkering set to become mandatory in Singapore form January 1, 2017, some reports have suggested the move could encourage some operators to buy their bunkers in other ports.
While there is an equally strong argument to say this will not happen, the International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA) says the technology has prompted at least one player to actually lift more bunkers in Singapore.
The bunker buyer, whose name was not revealed but described as "a major shipping company", told IBIA that it already only uses barges fitted with Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) approved MFM systems.
The time savings this brings - approximately two to three hours per delivery - plus the confidence the buyer has that they are actually getting the quantity of bunkers they are paying for, has resulted in them "substantially" increasing the amount of fuel they buy in Singapore.
The latest data from the MPA, correct as of September 15, 2016, indicates 107 bunker vessels in Singapore have now been fitted with an approved MFM system.
While this represents 48 percent of the total 223 approved bunker tankers, Simon Neo, Executive Director, Piroj International, has previously noted that around 50 of those are MGO only and are therefore not expected to be fitted with an MFM system at this time.
Additionally, some current HFO barges are to be converted to MGO only, so overall come January 1, 2017 he expects there to be around 120 to 130 MPA approved MFM barges - meaning some 80 to 90 percent of bunker vessels expected to get MFMs now have them.
While there are no correspondingly updated figures to indicate what volume of fuel is currently being delivered via MFM, earlier in the year when there were 73 bunker tankers fitted with approved MFMs, close to 1 million mt of bunkers - about a quarter of the port's monthly total - were being delivered via MFM every month.
As for the impact on volumes, data released this week by the MPA shows the port's year-to-date bunker sales total for the first eight months of the year now stands at 32,727,100 mt, a full ten percent higher than the same period in 2015 - which was also the previous record high.
