Bunker Delivery Note Disputes: A Vessel Agent’s Field Guide to Short-Delivery Claims and BDN Handover

When a bunker barge pulls alongside and the chief engineer is handed a bunker delivery note to sign, the clock starts.

Whatever quantity appears on that document, and whatever notation the CE adds or omits, becomes the primary evidence in any short-delivery dispute that follows. The supplier’s legal position is set. The vessel’s claim window opens. And the agent’s job, which began well before the barge arrived, is now either complete or already compromised.

A bunker delivery note is not administrative paperwork. It is the only document that can recover a short-delivery claim after the ship has sailed.

Most published guidance on BDNs approaches the subject from the supplier’s side or the regulatory side: what fields the document must contain, how long it must be retained, what MARPOL requires. That information matters, but it does not tell a vessel agent what to do at the manifold when the barge master is pushing for a signature and the delivered quantity looks short.

This guide covers the agent’s role across the full BDN lifecycle: pre-arrival coordination, physical handover, quantity discrepancy documentation, and dispute escalation. The goal is a clear field protocol: what to record, when to protest, who to notify, and what a defensible dispute file looks like when the P&I club asks for it.

What a Bunker Delivery Note Contains and Why It’s a Legal Document

A bunker delivery note is a MARPOL Annex VI-mandated document that records the quantity, grade, and physical properties of fuel oil delivered to a vessel, along with the delivery method, timestamps, and the identities of both the receiving vessel and the supplying barge or terminal.

Under MARPOL Regulation 18, every BDN must be retained on board for a minimum of three years and must be available for inspection by port state control at any port of call. This is not an internal receipt between commercial parties. It is a regulatory record that sits alongside the ship’s Oil Record Book as evidence of compliance with sulphur and fuel-quality requirements.

For quantity dispute purposes, the BDN matters because it represents the supplier’s declared delivery. Any quantity written on the BDN that is not challenged at the time of delivery, through a written protest or notation, is treated as accepted by the receiving vessel. The burden of proof in a short-delivery claim falls on the party asserting the discrepancy. The BDN is the starting point for that proof.

Mandatory fields on a compliant BDN:

If any of these fields are blank or illegible on the BDN presented to the chief engineer, the agent should flag it before the document is signed. An incomplete BDN can complicate both regulatory compliance and dispute proceedings.

The Agent’s Role Before Bunkering Begins

Short-delivery disputes rarely start at the manifold. They start earlier, in the gap between what was nominated, what was ordered, and what the barge actually loaded. The agent’s pre-arrival work closes that gap before it becomes a problem.

Discrepancies caught before bunkering begins cost nothing. Discrepancies found after the BDN is signed cost months.

Pre-arrival checklist for the vessel agent:

1. Confirm the bunker nomination against the purchase order: quantity, grade (ISO 8217 specification), and MARPOL-compliant sulphur limit for the port. Request the bunker supplier’s barge calibration certificates and verify they are current
2. Obtain the barge’s pre-delivery ullage report or tank measurement before the barge gets underway
3. Confirm with the chief engineer the vessel’s remaining bunker quantities, tank lineup, and maximum receiving capacity for each grade
4. Verify that the vessel has a licensed bunker surveyor on call if the principal has mandated independent measurement
5. Confirm delivery window with port operations and the barge operator. Rushed deliveries under time pressure are where documentation shortcuts happen. Establish a direct contact line with the chief engineer for real-time communication during delivery

Two points deserve emphasis. First, tank capacity confirmation is not optional. An overflow during delivery creates environmental liability and potentially exposes the agent to claims from the principal. The chief engineer’s receiving capacity figures must be confirmed in writing before the barge arrives. Second, requesting the barge’s pre-delivery ullage report is a step many agents skip. That report establishes the barge’s opening quantity, which is the supplier’s own measurement of what they loaded to deliver. If it later disappears or is revised, the agent’s copy is the only independent record.

BDN Handover: What Happens at the Manifold

The BDN is physically tendered by the bunker barge master to the chief engineer at the completion of delivery. In practice, this happens at the manifold connection point or at the vessel’s gangway, often under time pressure from both the barge operator wanting to clear and the vessel wanting to sail.

The agent’s role at handover is not to witness the signature and move on. The agent (or a nominated port representative) should be in direct contact with the CE before the document is signed, ensuring the CE has compared the BDN quantity against the vessel’s own ullage measurement. This is the last moment at which a protest can be added without ambiguity about timing.

If the agent is not physically present, they must have confirmed in advance exactly what procedure the CE will follow if a discrepancy appears. A chief engineer who has not been briefed will sometimes sign a clean BDN under time pressure and report the discrepancy later. By that point the claim is significantly harder to pursue.

H3: Sealing and Sampling Procedures

MARPOL Annex VI requires that a representative sample of delivered fuel be drawn during delivery and retained. The sampling procedure matters because the sample is the primary evidence in any fuel quality dispute, and inadequate sampling can also affect a quantity claim if the supplier argues that measurement conditions were abnormal.

Standard procedure requires samples to be drawn continuously throughout the delivery (not just at the start or end) using a drip sampler fitted to the bunker manifold. Each sample container must be sealed in the presence of both the barge representative and a vessel representative, then labelled with the vessel name, IMO number, delivery date, port, and fuel grade.

An unsealed or unlabelled bunker sample is inadmissible in most P&I club proceedings.

The agent should confirm before the barge departs that: – At least one sealed sample is retained on board – One sealed sample is held by the supplier – If an independent bunker surveyor is present, a third sample is retained by the surveyor – All sample labels are complete and consistent with the BDN fields

If the barge operator declines to participate in joint sealing, the agent should document that refusal in writing immediately.

H3: Chief Engineer’s Signature and Protest Rights

The chief engineer has the right to sign the BDN under protest if the delivered quantity differs from the nominated or expected quantity. This right exists regardless of what the barge master says about standard practice, timing, or commercial agreements between the shipowner and the supplier.

A protest notation must be specific to be useful. Writing “signed under protest” without a quantity figure provides weak grounds for a claim. The notation should read: “Signed under protest — vessel’s figure [X MT] differs from BDN quantity [Y MT].” Quantity received per vessel ullage: [X MT].”*

The agent must ensure the CE understands this wording before the barge arrives. A general signature without protest language, or a protest notation that only says “quantities disputed” without specifying the vessel’s own figure, weakens the claim from the moment it is written.

Identifying a Short Delivery: Quantity Discrepancy vs. Measurement Error

A quantity discrepancy exists when the vessel’s measurement of received fuel differs from the supplier’s declared figure on the BDN. Not every discrepancy is a short delivery. Instrument tolerance, temperature corrections, and measurement method differences account for a band of normal variation. The agent’s job is to distinguish measurement noise from a genuine shortfall that warrants a formal claim.

H3: Ship’s Figure vs. Shore Tank Figure

The vessel measures received quantity by ullage: sounding the bunker tanks before delivery begins and again after delivery is complete, then converting the volume difference to mass using the fuel’s density at 15°C. The barge measures delivered quantity either by flow meter (if fitted) or by barge tank ullage before and after pumping.

These two methods measure different things in different conditions. The vessel’s measurement reflects what arrived in the ship’s tanks. The barge’s measurement reflects what left the barge’s tanks. Pipeline content, trim corrections, temperature differentials, and flow meter calibration all create variation between the two figures.

H3: When to Treat a Discrepancy as a Formal Dispute

If the vessel’s figure is more than 0.5% below the BDN quantity, the CE should lodge a written protest and the agent should notify the principal and the supplier in writing before the vessel sails. The notification to the principal is the agent’s responsibility, not the CE’s.

The absence of a written protest at delivery is the single most common reason short-delivery claims fail.

If the vessel has already sailed without a protest notation, the claim window narrows sharply. BIMCO standard bunker terms typically allow 60 days from delivery to file a quantity claim, but many suppliers impose shorter contractual limits (sometimes as little as 14 days). Some contracts require notification before sailing as a condition of the claim. The agent should not assume 60 days is available without checking the supply contract terms.

How to File a Short-Delivery Claim: The Agent’s Documentation Checklist

A short-delivery claim file must be assembled at the port, not reconstructed afterward. The agent is responsible for compiling the file and transmitting it to the principal before the vessel sails — waiting for the CE to escalate after departure is not an acceptable workflow.

A complete dispute file takes 30 minutes to assemble at the berth. The same file takes weeks to reconstruct after the barge has departed.

BDN Short-Delivery Claim Documentation Checklist:

1. Signed BDN with protest notation — original or certified copy, with the CE’s protest wording and the vessel’s own quantity figure clearly noted
2. Vessel ullage report — pre-delivery and post-delivery tank soundings, signed by the CE, converted to MT using the fuel density on the BDN
3. Barge ullage report — pre-delivery and post-delivery measurements from the barge’s own records; request this from the barge master before departure
4. Flow meter reading — if the barge is fitted with a flow meter, request the meter reading printout at completion of delivery
5. Sealed sample certificates — labels for all retained samples showing vessel, IMO number, date, port, and fuel grade
6. Bunker surveyor’s report — if an independent surveyor was present; includes their independent quantity calculation and observations
7. Written notification to the supplier — sent before the vessel sails; must specify the claimed shortfall quantity and reference the BDN number
8. Written notification to the principal — transmitted to the principal’s operations contact before sailing; include the above documents as attachments
9. Agent’s event log — timestamped record of delivery start, completion, barge departure, protest notation time, and all communications with the CE and barge master
10. Supply contract or bunker confirmation — to confirm the contracted quantity, grade, and any specific claim notification requirements

Two items on this list deserve specific attention. The barge ullage report (item 3) is frequently not requested because agents assume the supplier will provide it automatically. They will not. The agent must ask for it while the barge is still alongside — once the barge has cleared, the only copy of that document is with the supplier. Suppliers are under no obligation to provide it voluntarily after a dispute is raised.

The agent’s event log (item 9) is the piece of the file that most often does not exist. A contemporaneous timestamped log — recorded on the day, not reconstructed from memory 48 hours later — is treated as primary evidence by P&I clubs. If the agent’s log contradicts the barge master’s log, the one that was written first carries more weight. Agents who run structured, documented port calls do not have to reconstruct dispute files from memory — the record already exists.

Escalation: P&I Club, Bunker Surveyor, and Principal Notification

If the quantity discrepancy cannot be resolved with the barge master at the berth — and most cannot, because the barge master has no authority to amend the BDN — the agent’s role shifts to escalation. Three parties need to be engaged, in roughly this order: the principal, the P&I club, and a bunker surveyor.

Escalation decision framework:

The principal notification is not a formality — it is the action that preserves the principal’s ability to pursue the claim commercially. Principals who receive notification after the vessel has sailed without protest have significantly less leverage with the supplier.

P&I clubs can appoint a bunker surveyor faster than the owner can arrange one independently. If the vessel is still alongside and the discrepancy is above 1.0%, the agent should recommend the principal contact their P&I correspondent at the port before the vessel sails. The P&I club’s local correspondent network is specifically designed for this situation.

A bunker surveyor’s role is threefold: independent measurement of remaining quantities (to cross-check the vessel’s ullage), verification of sample sealing and labelling procedures, and production of a survey report that carries evidentiary weight in arbitration or legal proceedings. The survey report is not the same as the agent’s event log — both are needed in a strong dispute file.

The agent should document every escalation step: who was notified, by what method, at what time, and what response was received. This documentation becomes part of the dispute file and may be relevant if the supplier argues that notification was untimely.

Common Documentation Failures That Weaken Dispute Files

Most short-delivery claims that fail do not fail because the delivery was not short. They fail because the documentation trail has a gap that the supplier can exploit. The following failures appear consistently in claims that are settled for less than the actual shortfall or rejected outright.

One failure not in the table above deserves separate mention: agents who rely on the CE to initiate escalation. The chief engineer is operating the vessel, managing crew, and coordinating with multiple parties during a port call. Waiting for the CE to report a discrepancy and then act on it creates a delay that benefits the supplier. The agent’s responsibility is to initiate — to ask the CE for the ullage figure, to flag the discrepancy against the BDN, and to begin the protest and notification process without waiting to be told.

Conclusion on Bunker Delivery Note

A bunker delivery note handover is not a routine document exchange. It is a three-stage evidentiary task: confirm quantities before the barge arrives, protect the CE’s right to protest at handover, and transmit a complete dispute file to the principal before the vessel sails. Every short-delivery claim that succeeds was built at the berth. Every claim that fails was built from memory afterward.

The three moments that determine whether a claim is recoverable are pre-arrival confirmation, protest notation at handover, and same-day principal notification. Miss one of those, and the documentation deficit follows the claim all the way to arbitration.

Agents who run structured, documented port calls do not need to reconstruct dispute files from scattered emails and phone logs. The record of what happened — who said what, when the ullage was taken, when the protest was made, when the principal was notified — already exists. That is what a reliable port call looks like from the outside, and it is what principals and P&I clubs expect to see when a bunker delivery note dispute lands on their desk.

If your agency handles bunker calls and your current workflow depends on the CE to initiate escalation and the email thread to serve as the event log, it is worth looking at how a purpose-built operations record changes what you can defend.

Key Takeaways

• A bunker delivery note is the primary evidence in a short-delivery dispute.
• The chief engineer should compare the BDN quantity against the vessel’s ullage figure before signing.
• A clean BDN signature can weaken or kill a claim.
• Protest wording should include the vessel’s measured quantity and the BDN quantity.
• Not every quantity difference is a short delivery. Measurement tolerance, temperature, trim, and method differences can explain small variances.
• Discrepancies above 0.5% should trigger protest notation and principal notification.
• The barge ullage report should be requested before the barge departs.
• Sealed, labelled bunker samples are critical evidence.
• The agent’s timestamped event log can carry major evidentiary weight.
• The dispute file should be assembled before the vessel sails.

Frequently Asked Questions