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While some in the bunker market might assume the introduction of mass flow meters would eliminate the need for bunker surveyors, surveying firm Viking Marine Services saw an increase in demand after Singapore made the change.
Vikram Mohan, managing director of Viking Marine Services, addressed the topic in a panel session at the IBIA Annual Convention 2023 in Dubai on Wednesday.
Singapore started making the use of mass flow meters mandatory for bunkering from 2017, covering just fuel oil deliveries at first. The port authorities at Rotterdam and Antwerp-Bruges are in the process of making the same change from 2026, and at the convention last week the Port of Fujairah said it was considering following suit.
“When we set up in Singapore, the next year they introduced the mass flow meters, and everybody said you will lose the survey business,” Mohan said at the conference.
“Actually in Singapore we now do about 600 ships per month; it’s not affected the business, it’s actually grown the business.
“We go back to the port and give feedback on the MFMs to them, and the MPA keeps holding these sessions with the surveyors.
“I’m not actually seeing a problem, I’m seeing an increase in surveys because of this.
“There’s a lot of checks that have to be done — in Singapore and Fujairah you tend to combine a lot of services at the same time, so the crew are very busy.”
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