Bunker Detective Survey
At the present market price of Fuel Oil and LSMGO, the bunker cost is an important part of Time Charterer expenses. For this reason C/E and/or bunker barge malpractices must be controlled by charterers & owners.
There are many ways to hide the bunkers: Short bunker delivery, hidden compartments, altered sounding pipe lengths, magic pipes, altered sounding tables, sounding tapes not properly calibrated, tampered gauge level, valves, lines and others.
The only way to fight against the bunker malpractice is to make a "Detective Bunkering" or 221B. This kind of inspection is the best way to find hidden bunker on board the vessel.
To illustrate what a bunker concealment really means in economic losses for owners and/or charterers, we are going to use a real example of a Detective Bunker.
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Checking Service & Settling FO tanks opening manhole to be sure these tanks were empty.
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Checking automatic gauge level. It had been trampered with.
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Checking possible presence of magic pipe in overflow tank.
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After inspection magic pipe is found.
