Bunkering conference reaffirms its reputation

THOSE in the Singapore shipping community with a reasonably long memory will remember that in October 1997 the authorities here were battling to counter an oil spill caused by a collision between two tankers, the Orapin Global and the Evoikos.

Last Friday, a week short of 19 years from that real incident, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) ran a full-deployment, multi-agency exercise code named JOSE 2016 to test and demonstrate Singapore's readiness to respond to oil spill incidents.

This was of course timed to coincide with end of the 19th Singapore International Bunkering Conference and Exhibition (Sibcon) 2016 and almost 80 Sibcon delegates took up the offer to observe the exercise.