Europe’s marine fuel supplies faced quality issues in the first quarter as the industry scrambled to replace Russian blendstocks with alternative fuel oil sources,according to data from Bureau Veritas Verifuel.Quality tests of 0.5% sulfur fuel oil,the prevailing marine fuel,showed up to 10% failed to meet specified parameters at key European bunker hubs in Q1.At the Greek port of Piraeus,some 10.6% of VLSFO sampled in Q1 did not meet International Standards Organisation ISO specifications 8217:2010 for 0.5%S residual marine fuel,the prevailing global standard for the fuel,according to Bureau Veritas data.In the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp area,4.9% of the fuel was off-spec and at Las Palmas 6.8% was off spec,compared to a global samples rate of 2.1%.The recurring culprit was sulfur.At Piraeus,the primary off-spec parameters were sulfur,water and sediments.At Las Palmas,sulfur and water content were the problems,while at ARA they were sulfur,density and aluminum & silicone content,the data showed.The off-spec instances at European ports were well above global trends,with 1.1% of fuels sampled globally off-spec for sulfur and much smaller incidences for other parameters.
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