EMEA News
VIEWPOINT: Turkish Market Shows Mandatory MFMS Not Needed Everywhere
Since the 1980s, Turkey has achieved a strong position in the global bunker market, setting an example for the industry.
Volumes were modest at the start, but climbed steadily to a peak of about 3 million mt in 2018 to
more than 10,000 ships. Turkey now supplies an average of about 2.5 million mt/year to more
than 12,000 ships, without significant quantity or quality claims.
There have been few serious quality or quantity issues in Turkey for a very long time.
How did this happen; magic, MFMs, licensing, or is something else behind the success story?
The answer is simple: honest, reliable people.
We have a system that is supported by all stakeholders:
- Every single amount of oil coming to Turkey is measured by mass flow meters installed at all terminals and refineries, by law
- All related parties, including suppliers, terminals, barges and even trucks are licensed by the oil authority, the EPDK, by law
- Licensed parties report to the oil authority every month for cross-checking; for example, terminals report x quantity was discharged and loaded for y supplier, and y supplier reports to the authority the discharged and loaded volume and the quantity delivered to ships per month. This is cross-checked by the oil authority and double-checked with the customs authorities
- All suppliers place bank guarantee letters with the customs authorities
- Samples of each arriving cargo are taken by customs officers and tested as per oil and customs law; nothing can go to ships without being approved by test results by law, so no off-spec product can be in the market
- No debunkering is allowed in Turkey
- All barges are loaded at terminals and refineries by mass flow meter, and also counter-measured by independent surveyors, then all barge tanks are sealed as per customs law
- Customs officers and/or independent surveyors come to every single bunkering
All these have given perfect results, making Istanbul and all of Turkey a most reliable bunkering hub.
We achieved this only with reliable, honest players combined with a transparent system; every buyer can see from which tanks, through which lines, into which bunker barges his products are loaded with related customs documents and terminal and survey reports.
I am surprised to read magic is expected from MFMs that come with a 0.5% margin of error tolerance, which is a big difference compared to the minimal losses in the Turkish system.
Given the above, I invited IBIA and BIMCO to study the Turkish case for developing a bunkering system.
In the meantime, as a long-serving IBIA board member I recommend IBIA management to avoid
blaming the whole industry for the problems that emerge. IBIA must talk about all market participants, not limiting matters to mass flow meters only, and support education and moral issues first.
I invite IBIA to publish a study about the Turkish market, telling the bunker and shipping industry
how a reliable bunker market can be achieved.
