The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has charged a Singapore-based company for unlawfully supplying bunker fuels in Singapore port over a few occasions without possessing a valid bunker supplier licence.
Progressive Power has pleaded guilty in court last Tuesday to five charges for supplying bunkers on five occasions in Singapore port.
MPA had brought charges against Progressive Power for delivering bunkers on eight occasions as a bunker craft operator between 17 March 2013 and 5 July 2013, and for supplying bunkers on seven occasions as a bunker supplier between 11 October 2012 and 22 January 2013.
“Progressive Power had used the Bunker Delivery Notes (BDN) belonging to Lian Hoe Leong & Brothers for the seven transactions as a bunker supplier,” MPA said in a statement yesterday.
Lian Hoe Leong & Brothers was a government-licensed bunker supplier, or accredited supplier, before MPA cancelled its licence on 15 January this year for breaching the terms and conditions of the bunkering licence by lending out their BDNs to other unlicensed companies.
MPA reminded in the statement that the “bunker supplier’s licence is not transferable”, and reminded all licensed bunker suppliers to “adhere strictly to the terms and conditions of the bunkering licence.”
As at 22 April, MPA listed a total of 63 accredited bunker suppliers.
Since June 2012, MPA has clamped down on accredited suppliers that allowed other companies to use their BDNs. A total of seven Singapore-based bunker companies had their licences revoked by MPA over close to a two-year period.
Singapore is currently the runaway leader in bunker sales volume, registering 42.7m metric tonnes of bunker sales in 2013.
In the first four months of this year, Singapore recorded 13.83m metric tonnes of bunker sales, relatively steady compared to 13.87m metric tonnes sold in the same period of 2013.
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