Bunker Barge
A Bunker Barge is a small tanker used to deliver fuel to ships, going alongside the receiving vessel at a berth or at anchor and transferring bunkers by hose. Bunker barges carry the various fuel grades from shore storage out to ships, making bunkering possible without the ship having to go to a fuel berth.
Barge-to-ship is the most common way ships take bunkers in major ports and bunkering hubs such as Singapore, Rotterdam and Fujairah. The barge measures the fuel supplied by tank soundings, and increasingly by a certified mass flow meter, which reduces quantity disputes.
The bunker barge is what lets ships refuel efficiently at anchor or alongside without occupying a fuel berth, which is why the great bunkering hubs run large barge fleets. How the barge measures the delivery — soundings versus a mass flow meter — directly affects the quantity disputes that plague the industry.
What is a mass flow meter in bunkering?
A certified meter that measures the mass of fuel transferred directly and continuously during bunkering. Mandated in some ports such as Singapore, it greatly reduces the quantity disputes that arise from tank-sounding measurements.