Bunker-only agency
Maingate Shipping acts as agent for bunker-only calls at Tanger Med: the port notification, the anchorage or berth, the barge or supply tanker's timing, the surveyors and the bunker delivery note, with crew, spares, provisions and cash fitted into the same stop. Our partner agent at the port attends; the Mombasa desk coordinates and reports.
Tanger Med is the Strait of Gibraltar on Morocco's northern tip, the largest container port in Africa, and transshipment vessels keep berth windows tight, bunker-only and crew change calls are routine, and the port runs to a schedule that rewards early nomination. Vessels on passage call for bunkers without loading cargo, and a bunker call is judged by one measure: how long the vessel is off passage. Maingate Shipping's bunker call agency at Tanger Med is built around that measure.
The desk is appointed by owners, managers, operators and by the bunker traders and suppliers themselves. Where the supplier and the receiving vessel both nominate Maingate, one desk coordinates both sides of the delivery and the vessel receives one account.
Bunker deliveries are where quantity disputes are born. Surveyors for the vessel's interests attend soundings and sampling, the bunker delivery note is witnessed, and any protest is recorded at the time so that the owner has the evidence if the figures are argued later.
A bunker call at Tanger Med starts with the stem: quantity, grade, supplier and the delivery mode the supplier offers. The desk files the port's notification, applies for the anchorage position or the berth, and fixes the delivery time with the supplier against the vessel's ETA and the weather forecast.
Owners still shopping for fuel are given the names of suppliers and traders serving the port; the desk does not sell fuel and does not take a margin on it.
Deliveries at Tanger Med are by barge at the berth and, where the port allows, by supply tanker at the anchorage. A mooring master, fenders and hoses are arranged where the supply vessel comes alongside, and the transfer is timed to the weather window.
The boarding officer attends the connection, the soundings before and after, the sampling and the signing of the bunker delivery note, and records the times for the owner's account.
The owner's surveyor sounds the barge before and after, witnesses the sampling and checks the delivery note against the stem. A difference between the barge's figures and the vessel's is protested on the spot, in writing, with the surveyor's figures attached; a protest raised after the barge has gone is a letter, not evidence.
Samples are sealed and their custody recorded, and the desk holds the paperwork with the account.
A bunker call is the moment to change crew, land spares, take provisions and deliver cash to master, and the desk fits these into the same stop through Tangier Ibn Battouta Airport and by launch. Nothing waits for a separate visit.
The account shows the port charges, the agency fee, the launch hire and the services delivered, each with its receipt, and reconciles against the advance.
Yes. Transshipment vessels keep berth windows tight, bunker-only and crew change calls are routine, and the port runs to a schedule that rewards early nomination.
The owner, manager or operator for the vessel's side; the trader or physical supplier for the delivery; sometimes both on one instruction with the roles set out.
Not compulsory, but the desk recommends an owner's surveyor at every delivery; the cost is small against a quantity dispute.
Port charges and third-party services at cost with receipts, plus an agency fee agreed in the proforma DA before the call.
Receipts behind every line, a record behind every stoppage, a desk behind every call.
The port call, the crew change and the supplier desk, one instruction line.
Also on maingateshipping.com: Ship agency at Mombasa · Ship agency and charter brokers · Ship brokerage · About Maingate · Contact
Maingate Shipping Limited · Express Building, Moi Avenue, Mombasa, Kenya · ops@maingateshipping.com · +254 784 622 091