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Bunker News
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Thursday, 22 July 2010 07:17 |
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 EU officials stated that they would amend the EU sulfur directive. The new directive would be made public by 2011. The amendment pertains to harmonizing the EU regulations with those of Marpol Annex VI.
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Sunday, 11 July 2010 20:27 |
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With reference to the 1.00% sulfur limit in ECA areas, we have received many queries from our customers and we give interpretations below.
The bodies that will ensure compliance will the MARPOL regulations will be the State Port Authorities. Already, Norway has announced that they will accept 1.00% sulfur content only.
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Sunday, 09 May 2010 18:15 |
 A DNV Petroleum Services (DNVPS) survey on the operational impact of the European Union 0.1% marine fuel sulphur limit – enforced on Jan 1 this year – has revealed potentially critical issues.
Among the 65 shipping companies that responded to the survey, 40 percent felt the EU member states were not harmonised in applying regulatory standards when verifying compliance with the 0.1% marine fuel sulphur limit. This lack of uniformity could confuse and dampen the shipping community’s confidence in the ability of the EU to enforce its own environmental regulations.
“DNV had previously expressed concerns that the 0.1% sulphur cap effectively meant ships at berth in the community ports must use marine gas oil, notwithstanding many of the boilers on board would not have been modified by Jan 1 to burn this type of fuel,” said DNVPS managing director Tore Morten Wetterhus. “Now that more ships are presumably equipped with the installations to minimize gas oil-related risks, such as fuel pump leakage and boiler explosion, shipboard personnel face new worries not knowing what to expect from port state inspections in different EU ports.”
Close to 40% of the respondents said their vessels did not have the tank flexibility to segregate gas oil and heavy fuel oil. Another 15% reported filter choking and fuel pump seizures when switching from normal sulphur heavy fuel oil to the much more expensive gas oil on entering the EU community ports.
Surprisingly, almost a third of the respondents did not routinely test the quality of their gas oil purchases, despite the risks of their ships consuming fuels not compliant with the 0.1% fuel sulphur limit.
In the worst case, an untested fuel could be so severely ‘off-specification’ that it causes substantial engine damage and jeopardizes the safety of crew and cargo at sea.
“As a marine fuel management company, it is especially unsettling for DNVPS to find that some ship operators are gambling with safety when they choose to use gas oil of unknown quality. There must be much more awareness on problems commonly associated with this type of fuel; for instance, low flashpoint and low viscosity,” Mr Wetterhus cautioned.
On a brighter note, he said 90% of the survey respondents believed their crews were familiar with the onboard routines for complying with the EU fuel regulations, but many also felt continuous training would be necessary.
To update the shipping community on marine fuel regulations, related operational challenges, and the latest changes to the ISO 8217 marine fuel specification, DNVPS has been organising seminars and round-table discussions in its key markets. Targeted locations include Singapore, the Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Germany, Dubai, USA and Canada. |
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Thursday, 06 May 2010 20:01 |
 The explosion and subsequent sinking of BP/Transocean’s ‘Deepwater Horizon’ rig in the Gulf of Mexico has resulted in oil hitting the US shoreline.
According to McQuilling Services, the US Gulf of Mexico is home to the majority of US PAD III (Alabama through New Mexico) refinery operations, accounting for 8.5 mill barrels per day of refining throughput, or 48% of total US crude runs.
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Sunday, 11 April 2010 08:36 |
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 The operator Eni announces two new oil discoveries made in Block 15/06, Nzanza-1 and Cinguvu-1, offshore Angola. Statoil has a 5% working interest in this block.
Both wells, located around 350 km north-west of Luanda in 1,400 metres of water depth, successfully reached the objectives in the Lower Miocene targets where oil pay sands with good reservoir characteristics were encountered.
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Monday, 05 April 2010 09:18 |
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Please refer to our technical update (2010/3/7 ? Comments on clause 5 of ISO 8217 2010) which also included a note on Annex B for Deleterious substances. We have a very important point to make on.
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Wednesday, 31 March 2010 19:51 |
Viswa Lab has commented on ISO 4259 in our technical update 2009/12/28 ? ISO 8217 2010 DRAFT UPDATE.
Therein, Viswa Lab had commented that the benefit of the test precision should not be passed on to the supplier. This is the stand MEPC has taken in the case of sulfur content for ECA areas. MEPC had ruled that the sulfur should be 1.50% or less and no variation on this will be permitted.
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Wednesday, 24 March 2010 16:06 |
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 EU Commission Communication, Commission Recommendation of 21.12.2009 on the safe implementation of the use of low sulphur fuel by ships at berth in Community ports C (2009) 10289, on the relaxation of the introduction of EU Directive 2005/33 is addressed to national governments of member states.
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 05:48 |
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 ABS holds Athens seminar on low sulfur fuel issues.
More than 190 members of the Greek shipowning and operating community attended an Athens seminar on issues associated with requirements to burn low sulfur fuels in the existing Sulfur Emissions Control Areas (SECAs) and in European Ports.
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Sunday, 07 February 2010 16:26 |
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Crude oil imports are likely to go up by 9.1 percent this year to 212 million tons, according to a report from oil and gas producer China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC).
China: Crude oil imports to increase this year.
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Sunday, 03 January 2010 11:00 |
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 Wile world energy consumption is expected to grow in 2010, it will only be adding 1.1 million barrels of consumption and will remain below its past peak consumption.
According the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) latest energy outlook, while world energy consumption is expected to grow in 2010, it will only be adding 1.1 million barrels of consumption and will remain below its past peak consumption.
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Wednesday, 16 December 2009 07:41 |
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In the month of October 2009, Viswa Lab received 3 sets of samples bunkered in Houston/Lake Charles/Galveston. In at least two of the cases the supplier was the same.
In all the cases, damage has been reported to fuel injectors and fuel pumps.
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Sunday, 13 December 2009 19:15 |
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 With just few days to go before the 1 January 2010 start-date for the European Union (EU) rule mandating consumption of 0.1% sulphur content marine gasoil (MGO) in port, shipowners are investigating all options to ensure that auxiliary diesel engines and boilers will safely accommodate the new fuel.
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Sunday, 31 May 2009 22:24 |
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Sulphur reduction was under discussion this week at the 57th session of the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 57) meeting in London. According to one of the options the sulphur cap for fuel used in SECAs is to be 1.00% from early in 2010, dropping to 0.10% in 2015, and for the global sulphur cap to be reduced to 0.50% from 2018.....
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