The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore has taken steps to ensure the fuel contamination issue, which has so far impacted dozens of ships that bunkered at the city-state, does not escalate further as it continues its probe.

MPA has contacted the relevant bunker suppliers to take necessary steps to stop supplying the particular batch of fuel, and also informed all ships that were supplied with the fuel to exercise caution, the regulator told S&P Global Commodity Insights April 7. MPA had launched an investigation to determine the cause of the latest off-specification bunker fuel issue after several cases of chlorinated hydrocarbons were detected in marine fuel deliveries, mostly for high sulfur fuel oil, in the world’s largest bunkering port.

“Further investigations are currently ongoing. MPA will not hesitate to take action should there be any non-compliance,” it said.

The recent bunker fuel quality issue in Singapore is a reminder of the Houston fuel quality problem that arose in 2018, when many ships consumed contaminated fuel and suffered engine damage before it was discovered that the fuel was unsafe to use.

Valuations surge The global fuel oil market has been in a turmoil with limited product availability, largely attributable to less-than-usual Russian oil flowing into the marine fuel oil pool. Amid this, the Asian HSFO market has been caught in the eye of a storm as tight availability is further compounded by fuel quality issues in Singapore.

This has meant that few suppliers were now in a position to offer product to the spot market. As such, offers have not only drawn down to a trickle, but even those with product were only able to commit delivery about 10 days out.

The premium for Singapore-delivered 380 CST bunker over the Mean of Platts Singapore 380 CST HSFO assessment has progressively ticked higher in the recent days to hit a near two-year high of $35.97/mt on April 7. The differential was last higher at $39.78/mt on April 23, 2020, S&P Global data showed.

Quality concerns Global fuel testing and inspection companies Veritas Petroleum Services and Maritec were among those to highlight their recent findings related to HSFO bunker fuel quality issues in Singapore.

VPS said in a statement March 31 that through the course of February-March, it had identified 34 ships that received from two Singapore suppliers HSFO deliveries contaminated with up to 2,000 ppm of chlorinated hydrocarbons. The fuel even met the ISO8217 specifications upon each delivery, VPS said.

“These bunker fuel contaminations have affected 14 vessels so far and the impact has been failure of the fuel system to the auxiliary engine resulting in loss of power and propulsion creating a blackout,” VPS said.

Fuel system failure arose from seizure of the fuel pumps and plunger and barrel corrosion, caused by the bunker fuel contaminants, it said, adding that these problems appear to be continuing to affect an increasing number of ships.

Maritec said March 17 it had tested several samples representing HSFO deliveries in Singapore from March 4-13 and detected chlorinated organic compounds by GCMS test methods.

Source of theses organic chlorides could be from chemical used in engine air coolers and cleaning agents used in the dry-cleaning industry, and should not be present in bunker fuels at this level, it added. Source: Platts