Bunkering quantity disputes and how records prevent them

Bunker quantity disputes are common, hard to prove after the fact, and almost entirely a documentation problem. The physical difference between what a barge says it delivered and what a vessel says it received is often real. Whether anyone can do anything about it depends on what was recorded at the time.

Attend the delivery

Someone independent of the supplier should be on board for the transfer. Not to referee, but to witness: tank soundings before and after, the barge's figures, temperatures and densities, and the time the hose was connected and disconnected.

Sound before, sound after

Pre- and post-delivery soundings on the receiving vessel, recorded and signed, are the single most useful piece of evidence in any later dispute. They take minutes.

Sample properly

MARPOL Annex VI requires a representative sample. It has to be drawn continuously through the delivery, sealed in the presence of both parties, and the seal numbers written on the bunker delivery note. Samples sealed afterwards from a drum prove nothing.

Protest at the time

A letter of protest issued during or immediately after the delivery, with the figures on it, preserves the position. A protest raised a week later against a signed BDN is a much weaker document.

Why we do not trade fuel

We arrange bunkers and attend deliveries, but we take no margin on the product. It is a deliberate choice: an agent with a position in the fuel has a conflict the moment a quantity dispute starts. Our record should be useful to you, not awkward for us.