Marine fuel supplier TFG Marine has fitted two more bunker supply barges in its US Gulf Coast fleet with mass flow meters (MFMs), the company said in a LinkedIn post yesterday.

The barges Buffalo B414 and Buffalo B304 have both recently received ISO 22192 certification for their newly installed meters. ISO 22192 is the international standard for bunker mass flow metering introduced in 2021, and certification is widely regarded in the industry as a safeguard against quantity disputes, which have historically been among the most common sources of friction in bunker deliveries.

The MFMs are intended to improve the accuracy of bunker quantity measurements and to give customers greater confidence in the volumes delivered. MFM-based delivery has become increasingly established in major bunkering hubs, with Singapore having made metered delivery mandatory for its licensed suppliers, and uptake growing in markets such as the Netherlands and Hong Kong.

The latest installations form part of TFG Marine's ongoing rollout of MFM technology across its bunkering fleet in the region. The company, a joint venture formed by shipping group Trafigura with shipping companies Frontline and Golden Ocean, announced the expansion of its physical supply operations on the US Gulf Coast in May last year, and shortly afterward installed an MFM on its first barge in the region. Further meter installations across its fleet would be a measure of how quickly metered bunkering gains ground in the US Gulf Coast market, where traditional tank sounding remains common.