Bunker suppliers Reliance, IOC, BP, HP and Nayara gets show-cause notice for violating surveillance audit

The Directorate General of Shipping has sought an explanation from ship fuel (bunker) suppliers such as Reliance Industries, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Nayara Energy for violating “annual surveillance audit” requirement set by the country’s maritime administration.

These five are among the 24 valid bunker supplier registration certificate holders who have been asked to show cause why their permits should not be withdrawn for non-compliance with rules prescribed by a Merchant Shipping Notice issued in 2014.

"Certificate issued as above shall cease to be valid, if the bunker supplier fails to carry out an annual surveillance audit within three months, before or after each anniversary date. The verification report has to be forwarded to the Directorate, on completion of the audit for records", according to Para 8.4 of MS Notice 3 of 2014.

However, these 24 entities have “violated” the rules prescribed by Merchant Shipping Notice of 2014 and “continued to supply bunkers to various vessels with deemed invalid bunker supply registration certificate”, J Senthil Kumar, Engineer and Ship Surveyor-cum-Deputy Director General (Technical), wrote in the show cause notice, a copy of which was reviewed by BusinessLine.

The bunker supply registration certificate issued by D G Shipping mandates satisfactory completion of annual surveillance audit of bunker supply management system by the D G Shipping or auditors of the Indian Register of Shipping, a ship classification society.

“Therefore, you are hereby called upon to show cause to why the bunker supply registration certificate issued to the Company under MS Notice 3 of 2014 should not be withdrawn,” Senthil Kumar wrote in the December 21 notice, asking for a response within 15 days.

Failure to respond within the deadline will be presumed by the D G Shipping that the companies have "no defence to offer and accept the charges".

Reliance Industries holds a permit to supply bunkers at Kakinada; Bharat Petroleum has a certificate for four locations – Surat, Kandla, Mahul and Sewree; Hindustan Petroleum at two locations (Sewree terminal and Surat); Indian Oil Corporation at JNPT in Navi Mumbai and Budge Budge; Oil and Natural Gas Corporation at Nhava in Navi Mumbai and Nayara Energy in Gujarat.

Other valid bunker supplier registration certificate holders who have been sent notices include Bhambhani Shipping (Mumbai); G P Global Energy (Gujarat); Geostan Marine (Kochi); Kan Enterprises (Visakhapatnam); Modest & Parsons International (Mumbai); Ocean Bunkers (Mumbai); Vert Line Marine Bunkers (Chennai); SES Bunkering (Mumbai); Sea Petroleum International (Mumbai); Shiny Shipping & Logistics (Mumbai); Tycoon Oil (Mumbai); Global Cambay Marine Services (Surat); Manali International (Gandhidham).