Technical Update 2018/7/26
Viswa Lab has received four cases of machinery problems with heavy fuel that were bunkered in Singapore in late May and June. There were two suppliers who supplied these fuels.
The vessels experienced problems with the main engine and auxiliary engine fuel system with sticking of fuel pumps and fuel racks and wear of plungers and barrels.
In depth analysis of the fuels indicated the Total Acid Number (TAN) is greater than 0.50 mg KOH/g in all of the cases with a high value of 0.92 mg KOH/g. All the fuels had poor Reserve Stability Number (RSN) values of over 10. This could indicate that these problem fuels are part of the batch that caused major problems with over 150 ships in the Houston area over March/April/May/June 2018 and subsequently in Panama in June/July 2018. We suspect that these fuels could be part of the poor‐quality bunkers (from Houston and Panama) de‐bunkered in Singapore. The de‐bunkered fuels were possibly resupplied.
Please be aware of this and take due precautions. We recommend that the TAN and RSN values should be checked at a minimum on fuels from Singapore before use. Please let the supplier know that you are aware of these problems when you bunker in Singapore.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.
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