Contaminated marine fuel that clogs and damages ship engines has been found in Singapore, the world’s largest ship refuelling hub, Reuters reported on 27 July.
Singapore-based marine fuel surveyor and consulting firm Maritec Pte. Ltd. warned clients this week that six samples of ship fuel sold in Singapore had ‘resulted in severe sludging at centrifuges, clogged pipelines, overwhelmed fuel filters’. The Singapore findings follow reports of more than 100 vessels that loaded similarly contaminated fuel in the US Gulf Coast, Panama and the Dutch Antilles earlier this year, said the alert notice, provided to Reuters by a Singapore-based bunker fuels trader.
‘The test results of the Singapore samples seems to point to both ‘Estonian type oil shale’ and “US type fracked shale oil’ being sold into Singapore, the surveyor said.
‘Fuels from Singapore are exported to all ASEAN countries and even all the way to Hong Kong. It should be therefore be expected that the whole region will be affected,’ Maritec said.
Contaminated marine fuels can cause costly damage to ship engines, and many of the vessels that took on the tainted batches earlier this year required extensive flushing and repair before being put back to work, trade sources told Reuters.
Singapore-based traders of marine fuel, or bunker fuel, say that the contaminated fuels are hard to detect because they pass industry standards but contain compounds not usually tested for.
Singapore-based marine fuel surveyor and consulting firm Maritec Pte. Ltd. warned clients this week that six samples of ship fuel sold in Singapore had ‘resulted in severe sludging at centrifuges, clogged pipelines, overwhelmed fuel filters’. The Singapore findings follow reports of more than 100 vessels that loaded similarly contaminated fuel in the US Gulf Coast, Panama and the Dutch Antilles earlier this year, said the alert notice, provided to Reuters by a Singapore-based bunker fuels trader.
‘The test results of the Singapore samples seems to point to both ‘Estonian type oil shale’ and “US type fracked shale oil’ being sold into Singapore, the surveyor said.
‘Fuels from Singapore are exported to all ASEAN countries and even all the way to Hong Kong. It should be therefore be expected that the whole region will be affected,’ Maritec said.
Contaminated marine fuels can cause costly damage to ship engines, and many of the vessels that took on the tainted batches earlier this year required extensive flushing and repair before being put back to work, trade sources told Reuters.
Singapore-based traders of marine fuel, or bunker fuel, say that the contaminated fuels are hard to detect because they pass industry standards but contain compounds not usually tested for.
