Singapore: With the world’s largest bunkering conference, Sibcon, set to get underway in Singapore on Wednesday SeaShip News caught up with the boss of a leading bunker surveyor to assess the state of the industry.
Eirik, Andreassen, managing director, DNV Petroleum Services, admitted that growth worldwide for its fuel quality testing services had been “slow” this year thanks to the Eurozone crisis, anaemic US economic growth and the slowdown in China’s trade.
Nevertheless, since the North American Emissions Control Area (ECA) came into effect on August 1, 2012, requiring vessels to use fuel oil with a maximum sulphur content 1.00% m/m within 200 nautical miles of US coastal areas, DNVPS has seen a spike in testing work.
On top of that, with shipowners looking at every aspect of costs, DNVPS has seen an upsurge in its bunker quantity survey work.
“This is an area we are seeing a greater focus and concern amongst ship operators, obviously because of spiraling fuel cost. Declining crew competence is also an factor that has led to the push to use bunker surveyors. No shipowner or operator would want to be exposed to losses just because he did not adhere to bunkering procedures,” Andreassen said.
DNVPS commands about two thirds of the global market share for fuel quality testing services for ship owners/managers/operators. [16/10/12]
