All About Bunker Mr. Kawasaki was in the Engine Control Room, listening to the Chief Engineer talk about the ship’s engine when the phone suddenly rang. The caller was the Captain, who told the Chief Engineer that an E-mail had arrived for him from the Operation Team. The Chief Engineer went to the Radio Room to pick up the E-mail and returned to the Control Room.

"Kawasaki, this is a perfect opportunity to do the bunker calculations together. "

"Bunker? What´s that? "

"I ´m not talking about golf," laughed the Chief Engineer. "A bunker is a ship´s fuel tank. The term dates way back to when ships were fueled by coal. The coal storage compartment was called a bunker and the term is still used today, even though ships now use oil as fuel. Refueling is called bunkering. Strictly speaking, fuel oil is called bunker oil, but on board a ship, it too is called bunker. "

"Hmmm, so bunker is fuel oil. "

"The E-mail that just arrived is from the Operation Team at the Tokyo Head Office. They want to know how much bunker we will need when we have to refuel in Long Beach. This is a good chance for me to briefly explain the process from making bunker arrangements to refueling. "

"OK, please do."

"When we calculate the quantity of bunker for refueling, broadly speaking, there are generally two types of instructions from the Operation Team. One says fill up with as much fuel as the ship will take. The other says fill up with the minimum amount you think you need to get to the next refueling port. Determining the amount of fuel is extremely difficult. It´s the most worrisome part of my job. For example, if I think that a certain amount of fuel is sufficient but we run into foul weather out at sea and have to navigate rough seas everyday, we could end up using more fuel than anticipated. In such a case, we could conceivably run out of fuel before reaching our destination. On the other hand, if we refuel with more fuel than we need, we end up carrying that much excess weight, and fuel oil is quite heavy. Especially in the case of container and bulk carriers subject to draft restrictions when entering and leaving port, excess fuel reduces the amount of cargo they can carry. So refueling decisions can also have a major effect on income. "

"You´ll get ulcers from worrying both before and after you determine the refueling quantity."

"That´s right. But the company has set internal standards to ensure prudent refueling decisions. Namely, we have to carry spare fuel equivalent to three days of fuel consumption at normal engine speed. In addition, we are also permitted to carry an additional two days of fuel, but only in the case of special circumstances, such as seasonal factors(e.g. during typhoon season, in winter on North Pacific routes) or refueling for extended round-trip voyages. "

"So the Operation Team places an order with the Fuel Supply Team for the amount of fuel you determine we need. And then the Fuel Supply Team contacts a fuel supplier or local agent and makes the arrangements for us to refuel at our destination "

Once the ship arrived outside Long Beach Harbor and dropped anchor, a barge (small tanker) that seemed to have been waiting pulled up alongside the ship, carrying a full load of fuel. Mr. Kawasaki received permission from the Chief Engineer to watch this refueling operation. Aboard the barge, which was secured alongside the ship with a hawser, the ship’ Second Engineer was measuring (sounding) the amount of fuel actually on board the barge. The Chief Engineer was checking specifications handed to him from the barge, making sure that the fuel had been delivered as ordered. While perusing the specifications, he said,

"Kawasaki, the bunker arrangements were made through the Fuel Supply Team, as I explained to you before. Now I´ll explain what we need to pay attention to when receiving the bunker that was ordered."

"Yes, I´d like to know. "

"The sounding that the Second Engineer is now doing aboard the barge is extremely important. If we neglect this task, and we have a problem later with respect to the amount of fuel, we’ll be up the creek without a paddle. Once the fuel is transferred to our ship, any sounding results we obtain are useless for making a claim against the fuel supplier. That’s why we always do a sounding in the presence of the supplier before the fuel is pumped aboard our ship. In addition, it’ also essential to check the specifications, like the ones I’m holding now, to make sure that the fuel we are receiving is what we ordered in terms of its quantity, specific gravity, viscosity and the sulfur content . Only if the results of these two checks are OK do we begin the refueling process. One other important thing we do is draw a bunker sample while we are refueling. We send the sample to an inspection company for analysis. The Fuel Supply Team tabulates these analytical results to blacklist inferior suppliers."

"In other words, these are all things the fuel buyer does for self-protection. "

"That´s right. Let´s find out the sounding results from the Second Engineer and, if there´s no problem, begin refueling."

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