Meeting Report on What You Need to Know about Marine Fuels Today presented by Bill Stamatopoulos, Business Development Manager South Europe at Bureau Veritas at the Greek Section’s Technical Meeting on December 7th, 2017.
During the Greek Section’s final meeting for 2017 Mr. Bill Stamatopoulos, Business Development Manager South Europe at Bureau Veritas made a presentation on What You Need to Know about Marine Fuels Today.
The presentation addressed what good fuel quality is; Two main reasons for the deteriorating fuel oil quality; ISO 8217:2017 and the way forward; Fuel testing and accuracy of test methods (ISO 4259); Bunker claims; and PSC inspections and legislation.
The speaker started his presentation by arguing that even though residual fuels offer shipping a low-cost fuel and provide refiners with a market for a by-product of crude oil processing, there are still different opinions on what constitutes a good fuel quality from commercial, statutory and technical standpoint. Historically, viscosity and density might have been the controlling parameters for refiners or blenders. However, this is no longer the case, especially since sulphur content started being seriously considered.
The speaker continued his presentation by referring to ISO 8217 which is a purchase specification that defines the required properties of fuels at the time and place of custody transfer. He highlighted that given the variability between test results, even from identical samples tested in the same laboratory, the well-established ISO 4259 should be used for the interpretation of whether the fuel has or has not, met a particular specification requirement. By no means, should being on specification be considered good fuel or the other way around. In terms of quality, he presented two ways to build up a claim; If fuel is off specification and/or if it is not fit for its intended use. He completed his presentation by referring to sulphur compliance and saying that several ECA countries are already working with remote sensing and quick scanning devices.
A Q&A session succeeded the presentation. During the post-meeting reception attendees had the chance to meet SNAME President, talk to representatives from all segments of maritime industry, discuss and share their ideas.
The meeting was attended by thirty (30) members, 2 special guests and sixteen (16) non-members. It was also broadcast to SNAME members worldwide.
From left to right: H. Petrakakos, N. Dionissopoulos, B. Stamatopoulos, J. Kokarakis, G. Bourtoulis
The presentation can be found here.
stamatopoulos_what_you_need_to_kn_2917_SECP.pdf