SINGAPORE'S Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) has launched a probe on the cause of the alleged bunker fuel contamination by 2 bunker fuel suppliers here - a major episode that could threaten to mar the city-state's widely acclaimed status as a global maritime hub.

"As a major bunkering hub, the MPA takes quality assurance seriously and is investigating the cause of the alleged bunker fuel contamination," said the agency in response to a query from The Business Times.

It added: "After MPA was notified of the issue on Mar 14, 2022, MPA immediately contacted the relevant bunker suppliers to take necessary steps to stop supplying the relevant batch of fuel and to also inform all the ships that were supplied with the fuel to exercise caution when using it.

"Further investigations are currently ongoing. MPA will not hesitate to take action should there be any non-compliance."

Reuters reported last week that Veritas Petroleum Services, a fuel and oil testing firm, had issued an alert that 34 vessels received high sulphur fuel oil deliveries from 2 unnamed Singapore suppliers over the last 2 months that were contamined with up to 2,000 parts per million of chlorinated hydrocarbons.

As a result of this, at least 14 ships were hit by a failure of the fuel system that led to a loss of power and propulsion, creating a "blackout", the newswire reported, citing a document it has seen.

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Singapore is the world's largest marine bunkering port. There are over 40 licensed bunker suppliers in the city-state, including units of giants PetroChina International, Shell, Vitol and BP, to name a few.