Shipowners to determine success of mass flow meters for bunkering

Shipowners will ultimately be the ones to decide if mass flow meters are here to stay, Seah Khen Hee, chairman of the technical committee for bunkering of the Singapore Standards Council, said.

Speaking at an industry forum organized by the International Bunker Industry Association (Asia), Seah said it would be the shipping industry’s rate of adoption of mass flow meters that will determine its success as opposed to using traditional measurement methods like the sounding tape.

The technology can “never be perfect” but it provides more of a “fair trading” framework, he added.

Singapore, the largest bunkering port in the world by volume with 42.7 million mt sold in 2013, will be mandating the use of mass flow meters from January 1, 2017, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said previously.

Shipowners would also be able to “gauge” what types of suppliers they choose to do business with, with the introduction of mass flow meters, Seah said.

“[The shipowner] will be able to gauge the type of supplier he is dealing with and make better purchase decisions from the knowledge gained,” he added.

Industry participants were also encouraged not to wait until the last minute to install the meters, as the manufacturers and available expertise for installations would be stretched, as the 2017 deadline draws near, said Neal Watmough, managing director of producer Endress + Hauser.

While a typical duration of purchasing and installing a meter is about four months, with a last-minute demand crunch, it could take longer than that, he added.

Although the meters are to be widely used eventually for the delivery of bunker fuel, industry participants also asked about the use of these meters for loading of fuel from shore-tank terminals, to better track their fuel inventories of loading from terminals and delivering to ships.

Mass flow meters, which measure the flow rate through a pipe that helps gauge the quantity and also the mass and density of bunker fuel passing through, have been a controversial issue in the industry.

Advocates say they will bring greater transparency and improve quality and quantity standards.

But others say the meters are no more accurate than the sounding tape measurement that is used currently, where a quantity reading from the barge fuel tank of the receiving vessel is taken prior to transfer.
Source: Platts