Fuel stops
Maingate Shipping acts as agent for bunker-only calls at Tema: 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.
Tema is the coast east of Accra, Ghana's main commercial port, and cocoa export timing, refinery tanker calls and a busy container terminal give Tema several distinct rhythms that an agent balances at once. 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 Tema 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.
The vessel advises her ETA and the quantity and grade stemmed. The desk files the port's notification for a bunker-only call, secures the anchorage position or the berth, and confirms the barge or supply tanker's timing with the supplier so that the vessel is not waiting for the fuel and the fuel is not waiting for the vessel.
Where the vessel has not yet stemmed, the desk introduces suppliers and traders serving the port and passes their offers to the owner without taking a position in the sale.
Deliveries at Tema are by barge at the berth or by supply tanker alongside at the anchorage under the port permission for ship-to-ship transfer. 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.
The desk treats a bunker call at Tema as an anchorage visit with a purpose, and uses it: crew changes via Kotoka International Airport at Accra, spares in transit, provisions, cash and medical attention all go out by the same launch or alongside the same berth.
Every service is a line in the account with its receipt, and the final DA reconciles against the advance within the agreed days.
Yes, at the anchorage by supply tanker under the port's permission for ship-to-ship transfer, subject to the weather.
No. The desk acts as agent for the call and, where appointed, for the supplier's delivery; it does not trade fuel.
Yes. Crew, spares, provisions and cash to master are fitted into the same stop.
The boarding officer attends throughout, and independent surveyors appointed by the owner attend the soundings and sampling and issue the quantity report.
Nominate Maingate Shipping and the answer comes from Mombasa with a proforma DA attached.
Desks that go with a fuel stop at Tema.
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Maingate Shipping Limited · Express Building, Moi Avenue, Mombasa, Kenya · ops@maingateshipping.com · +254 784 622 091