Burning "Bad Bunkers" OK in Some Vessels but Not Others

Contaminated fuel? Ok in some vessels but not others. Image Credit: Ship & Bunker

In recent months as many as 200 vessels have been affected by a particularly problematic type of bunker fuel contamination that has gone undetected by industry standard ISO 8217 testing.

Ship & Bunker has now learned that the same "bad bunkers" causing problems for one vessel have been burned without issue in another.

The problem fuels all have a similar profile; they contain phenols and other contaminants suspected to cause the sticking of fuel plungers, blocked fuel filters, and/or fuel-pump seizures and failures.

But industry sources have told Ship & Bunker that they have stemmed several vessels with the same batch of allegedly bad bunkers and only some of those have experienced problems.

"We stemmed six vessels with what we subsequently learned could be contaminated fuel, but only two of those vessels reported any problems. The other four did not experience problems," a physical supplier told Ship & Bunker, who asked to remain anonymous.

"It would suggest to me that there is more at play here than just the fuel, but some vessels do seem more sensitive to this then others."

There are a number of reasons why this could be, such as a specific fuel compatibility issue between the bunkers onboard. However, the relatively low occurrence of such issues historically would make it difficult to believe this was solely responsible for the recent wave of problems.

It has also been suggested the problem could be related to particular modern engines and / or fuel systems, and that newer vessels with more highly tuned engines and other "eco" features could be more susceptible to experiencing problems.

While it is almost impossible to verify this claim as there is so far no complete record of exactly which vessels have been affected, engine manufacturer WinGD indicated to Ship & Bunker that this is unlikely to be true.

"The reported recent chemical contamination cases caused by fuel bunkered in Houston, Panama, and Singapore area have led to various fuel system component failures. The observed failures are not limited to any particular fuel system generation," a spokesperson for WinGD told Ship & Bunker.

"These affected systems have been in use for six to ~50 years. There are currently ~10 cases known to WinGD where fuel contamination was likely the source of engine component failure."