ABSTRACT
In modern marine practice, great attention has to be paid to the running and maintenance of machinery plant, due to the tighter schedules required by charters and the need to be competitive in the market. In this respect, recent years have seen a significant reduction in the number of breakdowns caused by poor machinery maintenance. It is obviously important to the bunker buyer, whether the ship-owner or the charterer, that the quantity of bunkers delivered aboard ship on the occasion of each stem is properly verified and recorded. The value of the average stem is considerable and, therefore, any discrepancy involves a significant amount of money. Since their entry into the market the providers of these services have more than checked the quality slide downhill which was heralded by the onset of the development of secondary oil refining. Quantity surveying services still have some way to go before they also become a recognized part of bunkering.
