Loss Prevention 26 Sep, 2024

WEST renews its bunker fuel quality statistics contract with VPS

Dmitry Kisil

Senior Loss Prevention Officer

West is pleased to announce that it has renewed its contract with a market leader in marine fuel testing Veritas Petroleum Services (VPS).

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The Bunker Fuel Advisory service for West P&I Members was initially launched in December 2020. Since then, this unparalleled partnership has continued to provide the Club’s Members with up-to-date, customised fuel quality analytics for all bunkering ports where VPS holds data. In 2021, and again in 2022 the service was upgraded with additional content vital for informed decision-making and risk management for bunker fuel purchasers and bunker fuel users alike.

Regular updates of the bunker quality of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO), Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO), Ultra Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (ULSFO) and Marine Gas Oil (MGO) offer “fresh from the press” data, as well as inform the users of problematic areas across the globe highlighted by VPS in its Bunker Alerts.

The information available to the Club’s Members and companies working closely with the Club includes:

Statistical probability to load off-specification bunkers in a particular port from the extensive global VPS database;
Bunker pricing in 20 main bunkering ports and calculated parameters such as Energy per Dollar (MJ / $) costs;
Theoretical short lifting amount worked out from a difference between density declared in the BDN and the actual density of tested samples.

For example, over the last six months HFO loaded in Singapore on average provided vessels with 91.59 MJ of energy per USD, while in Los Angeles this figure was as low as 79.12 MJ per USD. In addition to the cost consideration, HFO samples from Singapore failed to meet ISO 8217 specification in 3% of cases, compared with 13% in Los Angeles. Bunkering VLSFO in Northern European ports offered between 75.63 and 78.13 MJ per USD, in comparison to Mediterranean ports, where VLSFO yielded between 73.11 and 76.37 MJ per USD. However, the likelihood of bunkering off-spec fuel in Northern Europe is higher than in the Mediterranean. A deeper analysis of these statistics can provide further valuable insights into actual costs and quality parameters.

Download a sample report here.

General bunker quality information can be viewed via the Bunker tab on Neptune. For detailed information and customised reports, please contact the Loss Prevention Department.