News 05 Oct, 2022 Bad Bunkers - Waypoints Issue 03 article According to Steve Bee, Commercial & Business Development Director at fuel testing company VPS Group, HSFO fuels require a new state of vigilance from charterers and owners alike. Download PDF Steve Bee (Commercial & Business Development Director, VPS Group)  The so called ‘bad bunkers’ incidents originating out of Singapore and Houston have raised concerns about whether the ISO8217 specification for ships’ fuel still provides adequate protection in the era of HSFO (High Sulphur Fuel Oil). In the Singapore incident earlier this year, some 200 ships took on the contaminated fuel, with approximately 80 of them later reporting some level of damage to fuel pumps or engines. The problem is that the liability in this is not clear. Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) stated that ‘the contaminated fuel was in compliance with ISO8217.’ Ship fuels though are blended and traded extensively and it’s becoming clear that parts of the blending, mixing, storage and transfer processes could be allowing potentially damaging compounds to show up in HSFO. The ISO8217 specification does not specifically state safe levels for such compounds. Rather it sets minimum and maximum values for various parameters from density and water content to viscosity. Some in the industry believe that if these values fall within the range, the fuel is ISO8217 compliant. However, there is another catch-all clause within ISO8217 stating that fuel must be ‘free from any material at a concentration that causes the fuel to be unacceptable for use’. But as a somewhat woolly phrase that does not specify values for the specific compounds that could contaminate HSFO, it’s open to interpretation and litigation in the event of a claim. Glencore, the fuel supplier in the Singapore incident, traced the contamination to a batch of fuel it had received from overseas that contained 15000ppm of chlorinated organic products. It’s believed that