Concern fuel tankers will cause harbour accident

Western Cape fishing companies hold their breath

TWO OF the Western Cape’s biggest fishing companies say the congestion caused by fuel tankers reversing down the quays of Cape Town harbour to refuel ships could to lead to an accident.

The harbour’s sole refuelling pipeline system was shut down in July, leaving some vessels with no option but to refuel from contracted road tankers.

“Our harbours are simply not designed to cope with this method of fuel delivery,” said Francois Kuttel, chief executive of the Oceana Group.

“Currently the harbour is congested with fuel trucks waiting to deliver fuel. The truck drivers have to reverse down quaysides not designed for this operation just to get close to vessels to connect portable hoses.”

While it took about four hours to refuel from the now decommissioned pipeline, vessels now waited up to three days to be refuelled from tankers. This also affected fishing time and consequent revenue.

“The largest trucks can only carry a maximum of 39 000 litres, which means we have to order 10 trucks to fuel our larger hake vessels.”

The pipeline is run by Joint Bunkering Services (JBS), a partnership represented by oil companies including Chevron, BP and Engen.

Chevron South Africa is the managing participant and operator of the venture.

Chevron spokeswoman Suzanne Pullinger said the pipeline was shut down as “part of an ongoing environmental risk assessment programme”.

“JBS advised customers in July that the bunkering operations via pipeline would be terminated, and that alternative arrangements will be in place to supply vessels via the barge operations.”

But fishing companies and ships’ agents said they were using tankers because not all vessels could refuel from a barge. Ships smaller than 70m in length, such as fishing trawlers, were too small to refuel from the barge due to safety concerns.

Tim Reddell, director of Viking Fishing Holdings, said while the health and safety risks of using tankers were “huge,” the group didn’t have any other option to keep its fleet going.

He added that it was difficult to contract trucks to deliver fuel, as the grade of fuel used by ships differed from that used by cars.

This meant the truck’s tanks needed to be cleaned, which carried additional costs.

David Jooste, of Trade Ocean shipping services, a shipping agent for foreign vessels calling at the harbour, questioned why no contingency plans were put in place for smaller vessels after the pipeline shut down. Town are vessels under 70m in length, as well as many of the offshore oil and gas support vessels,” Jooste pointed out.

As a result of uncertainty whether gas oil would be readily available, Jooste said some vessels had stopped calling at the harbour, choosing to rather bunker at ports such as Walvis Bay, Namibia.

“We estimate the total number of port calls of vessels under 70m requiring bunkers each year that is affected by the pipeline decommissioning to be (more than) 400.”

Asked about vessels choosing to bunker at other ports, Pullinger said: “The redirection of vessels to another port shall be at the discretion of the customer.”

Larger vessels could still refuel via the barge and “alternative bunkering options” would be explored, including procuring a second barge.

Ships’ agents and fishing companies approached by Weekend Argus welcomed the proposal of another barge, provided it could bunker smaller ships.

But they remain concerned about how the harbour’s facilities would cope until new plans were in place.

South African Bunker & Trading and Premier Fishing had not replied to requests for comment by deadline.

‘The vast majority of

PICTURE: DAVID RITCHIE LOSING BUSINESS? An aerial view of Cape Town harbour. Fishing companies say it has become onerous for some vessels to refuel at the port, after its sole fuel pipeline was decommissioned in July.