bunkers, time bars, bunker quality dispute Home Publications Articles Bunker Time Bars: Buyers Beware Bunker Time Bars: Buyers Beware Publications Steamship Mutual Published: May 01, 2019 Contact author Download article pdf     Image Bunker quality disputes are not a new phenomenon, but there has been an upward trend in the number of disputes. The consequences of burning off-specification bunkers can be severe, in extreme cases leading to the breakdown of, or damage to, the vessel’s engines and/or the time and expense of de-bunkering. This article discusses some common issues surrounding notification of off-specification bunker disputes and practical ways to protect against short time bars. Who is Responsible for Bunkering? Responsibility for bunkering will depend on how the subject vessel is being employed.  If a vessel is being employed by an owner for its own account, bunkers will be purchased by the owner. Under most voyage charterparties, the vessel should be delivered with sufficient and adequate bunkers to complete the voyage, allowing a reasonable margin for contingencies to which the vessel may be subject. Therefore, in both these scenarios, the owner will directly contract with the bunker supplier to stem bunkers. The position is different under most time charterparties where the supply of bunkers is generally the responsibility of the charterer. An owner will usually be required to deliver the vessel with an agreed quantity of bunkers on board, which the owner might have stemmed for his own account, or which might be remaining onboard from a previous charter. Thereafter, it will be the responsibility of the charterer to supply any bunkers necessary throughout the charter and to ensure the vessel is redelivered with the agreed quantity of bunkers on redelivery. Due to the nature of this arrangement, it will ordinarily be the charterer who contracts with the bunker supplier and so an owner will not be privy to this contract and will not be aw