Yes most of the supply in major port is done by bunker barge like normal, however there are different ways bunkers can be supplied such as
1. Road Truck
2. PIPE LINE
3. Floating storage
- Road Truck
Road truck is widely used in Shipyard, domestic bunker, small Asian port and in Europe. In order to do a road truck supply, receiving normally is at berth or in a shipyard ( it doesn’t make sense for a road truck to drive to middle of the ocean and supply at anchorage ). Normally due to the tank capacity of the truck the quantity each truck can carry is pretty small, so if you want to bunker a large quantity like 1000MT the turnover time will be VERY high.
2. PIPE LINE
More popular in Europe and America, in Asia pacific pipe line also be seen in Australia, so the vessel have to go near the pier and berth and the supply will be done directly from the bunker facility which located onshore. This is basically the same as we supply gasoline to our car but instead of a car it become a ships (also no snack available next to the Gas station. The practice is also similar for the vessel to load cargo at berth but instead of cargo it become bunkers
3. Floating storage
Its wildly used in Ocean going fishing vessel and research vessels, imagine a fishing vessels need to work for few months on the high sea and its not workable for them to go to nearby anchorage just to take bunkers if it take days for the voyage, so what it will be done by a HUGE bunker barge fully loaded from terminal, and anchor in the high sea, ships will just go up and alongside the bunker barge and take the bunkers they need.
Its also used in some occasion for small vessel like for vessel take less than 10MT MGO, its not economical for the bunker barge to alongside such small vessel and deliver 2MT, so normally a floating storage is employed like a floating gas station for ships to come.
Hope you find above information helpful
Until next time !
