[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore will implement new guidelines for mass flow meter bunker deliveries for fuel oil grades from June 1, MPA’s assistant chief executive of operations M Segar said.
The new TR48:2015 guidelines include the mandatory use of mass flow meters for bunker deliveries of fuel oil grades from January 1, 2017, and sit alongside the SS600 guidelines in use since 2008 for traditional methods of measurement.
For bunker deliveries of marine gasoil, there is no firm timeline for the port to implement mass flow metering, but it is something MPA is working on, MPA’s director of port services Parry Oei said on the sidelines of the launch.
More than 500,000 mt/month of bunker fuel was already being delivered via bunker tankers equipped with mass flow meters in Singapore port, MPA said. Around 64 bunker tankers have been approved to deliver bunker fuel via mass flow meter readings, it added.
A total of 228 bunker tankers had approval to supply bunker fuel via traditional methods at the port as of February 3, according to MPA’s website.
It expects all bunker tankers to be installed with an MPA-approved mass flow metering system by year end.
More than 64,000 bunkering operations were recorded in Singapore in 2015, equating to around 170 operations a day, MPA said.
Mass flow meters measure the flow rate in the pipe, gauging the quantity as well as the mass and density of the bunker fuel passing through, improving operational tolerance and shaving around three hours off a bunkering operation that can typically take up to eight hours using the traditional sounding tape method, which relies on a quantity reading from the barge fuel tank of the receiving vessel taken prior to transfer.
The quantity variance using meters is a maximum of 0.5%, and for the tradition method up to 0.7%.
While there were minor differences for marine gasoil versus marine fuel oil in using mass flow meters, the principles were largely the same, Oei said during a panel discussion at the launch event. The main difference was parcel size; MGO delivery stems are typically smaller than MFO ones, he said.
While some market participants fear the meters may not give an accurate reading if a stem was too small, this could be addressed by checking the type of meter used was suited to the parcel size being delivered, said Seah Khen Hee, chairman of the Singapore Standards Council’s technical committee for bunkering.
TERMINAL LOADINGS BEING STUDIED (sub-head)
MPA has also been studying the loading of fuel oil onto bunker tankers using mass flow metering technology and was in talks with terminal operators about this, but was currently primarily focused on getting ready for the 2017 implementation of deliveries via mass flow metering, Segar said on the sidelines of the launch event.
The bunker supply industry has called for the mandatory implementation of mass flow metering for loading bunker tankers from terminals as well as for the loading on to ships, as this would eliminate any variation in volume by using the same method to measure both, market sources said.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
