Bunker surveyors are mainly employed to independently check and determine the barge delivered quantity and the vessel received quantity. These two quantities should be within an acceptable tolerance (usually 0.5% of received quantity) and if not, the surveyor must investigate the cause of the discrepancy.

The scope of a bunker surveyor’s work during his attendance, in addition to the pre and post-transfer meeting and documentation, requires him to:

1. Conduct a full initial gauging of all the vessel’s tanks and record the actual initial quantity of bunkers onboard the vessel.
2. Compare the actual figures with the vessel’s declared figures and if a discrepancy is noted, re-gauge the ship’s tanks.
3. Conduct a full initial gauging of all the barge tanks and record the actual initial quantity of bunker fuel on the barge.
4. Ensure that the sampling equipment is set up properly to draw the bunker drip samples from the manifold during the bunkering.
5. Check that standard safety procedures for bunker transfer are complied with.
6. Monitor the ship’s bunker tanks regularly during the bunkering for any signs of cappuccino bunkers or entrapped air.
7. Conduct a thorough final gauging of all the barge tanks and record the actual quantity of bunker fuel remaining on the barge.
8. Conduct a thorough final gauging of all the vessel’s tanks and record the actual quantity of bunkers on board after completion of bunkering.
9. Establish the Barge delivered quantity and the vessel received quantity.
10. Seal and label the bunker samples. See sampling procedures for more details on bunker sampling.

This inspection is conducted to the vessel at the beginning and/or end of the chartering and aims at checking the overall condition of the vessel.

The on/off hire condition survey is an inspection of vessel’s holds, main deck, cargo working areas and external shell plating. It is performed in order to identify any damage present prior to the vessel going on/off hire.

DTA Marine Inspections & Survey Services start the attendances of on/off-hire condition surveys at berthing time, before the commencement of loading operation, or, at the end of a discharging operation, in order to inspect the holds without cargo inside to be more precise.

Our company details the findings of the inspection in the Survey Report that includes the anomalies found, general particulars of the vessel, relevant documents, and a photography list showing the actual condition of the vessel.

This survey is compared with the previous condition survey carried out to the vessel, in order to determine if new damage has occurred to the vessel from cargo operations and/or stevedores damage.

ON/OFF HIRE BUNKER SURVEY

The bunker survey is required in order to calculate the exact amount of bunkers on board at the time of the vessel’s delivery/redelivery.

The vessel is delivered by the owner to the charterer, in the case of On-Hire. At this time, usually, the Master issues a Delivery Certificates stating the place, time, parties involved, and total amount of bunkers on board.

In the case of redelivery, the vessel is redelivered by the charterer to the owner by the end of the chartering (Off Hire), when it is issued the “Redelivery Certificate”.

The Surveyor carries out the sounding of all bunkers tanks and performs corrections of soundings to the vessel’s trim and heel to find out the volume in tanks. Then it is applied corrections for temperatures and specific gravity, in order to determine the actual quantity of bunkers on board at the time/place of survey. The Surveyor checks vessel’s consumption, as per perusal of engine logbook and chartering details, to establish the number of bunkers remaining on board at Delivery/Redelivery time.