The Maritime as well as Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) was informed on 14 March 2022 that a variety of ships had actually been provided with High Sulphur Fuel Oil (HSFO) including high focus degrees of Chlorinated Organic Compounds (COC) (1,2-Dichloroethane, Tetrachloroethylene) in the Port ofSingapore MPA promptly got in touch with the pertinent shelter vendors to take needed actions to quit providing the influenced gas as well as to additionally notify all the ships that were provided with the gas to work out care when utilizing it.

Preliminary examinations performed by MPA exposed that the influenced gas– a combined item, was provided by Glencore Singapore Pte Ltd (Glencore). Glencore educated MPA that on obtaining records of its gas being infected, Glencore continued to check the gas provided by its resources utilized in its combined item, as well as found that of them that was sourced from abroad had actually included regarding 15000 ppm of COC.

By the moment of screening, Glencore had actually currently offered component of the influenced gas to PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte Ltd (PetroChina), which subsequently, had actually provided to ships in the Port of Singapore.

To day, Glencore as well as PetroChina had actually provided the influenced gas to around 200 ships in the Port ofSingapore Of these, regarding 80 ships have actually reported different problems with their gas pumps as well as engines. MPA has actually performed gas example examinations for a few of the influenced ships as well as discovered raised degrees of COC in their gas examples. This is the very first instance of gas contamination as a result of high focus degrees of COC reported in Singapore in the previous 20 years.

Bunker gas provided in the Port of Singapore have to fulfill the global requirements of oil items of gas– International Organization for Standardization 8217 (ISO 8217)[1] The infected gas bought by Glencore remained in conformity with ISO 8217. Glencore had actually additionally executed added screening of the gas based upon the American Society for Testing as well as Materials (ASTM) D7845[2] Both ISO 8217 as well as ASTM D7845 do not check for COC.

MPA is presently in conversations with the market on carrying out added gas high quality checks that would certainly evaluate for inappropriate chemicals. MPA additionally means to send a paper on the gas contamination with COC to the International Maritime Organization for the participants’ understanding.

As a significant bunkering center, MPA takes shelter quality control seriously as well as will certainly not think twice to take needed activities versus pertinent celebrations if they have actually stopped working to abide by MPA’s shelter permit problems or various other suitable guidelines.

[1] ISO 8217– International Standards Petroleum items– Fuels (course F)– Specifications of aquatic gas.
[2] ASTM D7845– Standard Test Method for Determination of Chemical Species in Marine Fuel Oil by Multidimensional Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

Reference: mpa.gov.sg