Fines on Bunkering Companies Found to be Non-compliant with Fuel Assurance Standards

Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Transport whether there are any plans to (i) impose fines on bunkering companies that are found to be non-compliant with fuel assurance checks and measures, including the ISO 8217 standards and (ii) conduct spot checks on the bunker fuel supplied to ships from the Port of Singapore.

All bunker suppliers, bunker craft operators and their bunker craft, bunker surveyors, and bunker surveying companies operating in the Port of Singapore are required to be licenced by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

Under MPA’s licencing regime, the licence may be suspended or cancelled by MPA if the licensee contravenes any of its terms and conditions. Failure to comply with any condition of a licence is also an offence that can result in a fine not exceeding $5,000.

MPA will suspend or revoke the licences of licensees that contravene the terms and conditions of their licence, to send a strong signal to the industry that such contraventions will not be tolerated. Recently, MPA suspended the licence of bunker supplier Glencore Singapore Pte Ltd for two months (from 18 August 2022), for failing to ensure that no bunkers supplied by it were contaminated in the period of 22 March 2022 to 1 April 2022.

To maintain the quality of bunker supplied in the Port of Singapore, every licenced bunker supplier must comply with the "Specification for Quality Management for Bunker Supply Chain" Singapore Standard (SS 524), which covers the management system for the bunker supply chain from product procurement to delivery.

The Singapore Standard (SS 524) also requires that the quality of bunker supplied to vessels must conform to the international standards set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). In particular, the ISO 8217 on "Petroleum Products - Fuels (class F) - Specifications of Marine Fuels" is the international standard that was developed together with industry stakeholders and national standards bodies.

To monitor compliance with these quality requirements, MPA carries out regular sampling and testing of bunker fuel at the point that the fuel is supplied to vessels, as well as bunker fuel carried by bunker tankers. On average, more than 1,300 bunker samples are tested annually to verify their compliance with ISO 8217.

MPA’s robust regulatory regime for bunkering ensures the safety of ship and port operations. Industry bodies such as the International Chamber of Shipping, World Shipping Council, and the International Bunkering Industry Association have recognised the effectiveness of MPA’s monitoring and enforcement of its regulatory regime, and have encouraged other IMO Member States to implement similar licencing schemes.

Trust is critical to our competitiveness as a bunkering hub. MPA will continue to work hard to assure our partners of the quantity and quality of bunker fuel that they receive in the Port of Singapore.