Bunker Barges Abandon South Africa Amid Algoa Bay Dispute

Algoa Bay, off Port Elizabeth, was until late last year South Africa's largest bunkering location. File Image / Pixabay

Bunker barges previously deployed to supply fuel in Algoa Bay have now left the country following a dispute between the industry and South Africa's government.

All of the barges previously supplying bunkers in Algoa Bay have now left the country, Unathi Sonti, executive chairperson of South Africa's Maritime Business Chamber, told Ship & Bunker on Friday.

"All of them have left South Africa, and at this stage there are no guarantees of them coming back," Sonti said.

"The news is that they are already working.

"The biggest challenge here is whether if customers will come back even if we open up the operations and have revenue regulations that are lenient towards the industry interests.

"The country will have to do much in convincing both the international bunker operators/traders (who command international clientele) and customers to come back South Africa as some have found comfort in hubs such as Namibia and Mauritius."

Supply at Algoa Bay was all but shut down in mid-September after the South African Revenue Service (SARS) detained five vessels including bunker barges earlier in the month.

This halted the bunker operations of TFG Marine and Minerva Bunkering.

This was followed by one of BP's barges at Algoa Bay also being detained later on in September.

SARS wrote to local shipping industry representatives in July to announce the findings of a longstanding investigation into the Algoa Bay bunker supply market.

The authority's accusation is that marine fuel cargoes have been delivered from other countries into floating storage facilities off Algoa Bay and sold on as bunkers without first having been properly registered and taxed as imports, rather than transshipped product.

It remains unclear whether this accusation was also being levelled at BP.

Bunker demand in South Africa could currently be going through something of a renaissance because of ships avoiding the Red Sea and Suez Canal because of attacks there, but the country is currently not able fully to take advantage of the situation.