SOME 200 ships in the Port of Singapore had received contaminated bunker fuel supplied by Glencore Singapore and PetroChina International Singapore, marking the first such case in 2 decades to hit the city-state, a global maritime hub.

Of these, about 80 ships have reported various issues with their fuel pumps and engines, according to a statement issued by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) on Wednesday (Apr 13) following preliminary investigations.

According to MPA, the investigations revealed that the affected fuel - a blended product - was supplied by Glencore Singapore.

On receiving reports of its fuel being contaminated, Glencore proceeded to test the fuels supplied by its sources used in its blended product, and discovered that one of them which was sourced from overseas had contained about 15,000 parts per million (ppm) of COC (chlorinated organic compounds).

At the time of testing, Glencore had already sold part of the affected fuel to PetroChina International, which in turn had supplied to ships in the Port of Singapore.

MPA said it was notified on Mar 14 that a number of ships had been supplied with High Sulphur Fuel Oil (HSFO) containing high concentration levels of COC in the Port of Singapore. Following this, the agency immediately contacted the relevant bunker suppliers to take the necessary steps to stop supplying the affected fuel and to also inform all the ships that were supplied with the fuel to exercise caution when using it.

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MPA added that it conducted fuel sample tests for some of the affected ships and found elevated levels of COC in their fuel samples.

"As a major bunkering hub, MPA takes bunker quality assurance seriously and will not hesitate to take necessary actions against relevant parties if they have failed to comply with MPA's bunker licence conditions or other applicable regulations," said the agency.

Bunker fuel supplied in the Port of Singapore must meet the international standards of petroleum products of fuel - International Organization for Standardization 8217 (ISO 8217). The contaminated fuel purchased by Glencore was in compliance with ISO 8217, said MPA. It added that Glencore had also performed additional testing of the fuel based on the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D78452. "Both ISO 8217 and ASTM D78452 do not test for COC," it said.

MPA is in discussions with the industry on implementing additional fuel quality checks to screen for "unacceptable chemicals". MPA said it will also submit a paper on the fuel contamination with COC to the International Maritime Organization for members' awareness.

READ MORE: MPA launches probe into bunker fuel contamination at Singapore port