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Mixing waste into oil could cost Antwerp company dearly (apache.be)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Mixing cheap chemical waste into marine fuel is extremely lucrative, but also illegal. For mixing waste with crude marine oil from Curaçao, the management of a large Antwerp oil bunkering company is facing three years in prison and a financial penalty of almost 3.7 million euros. To make their move, they also enlisted the help of a cabinet member of then Flemish environment minister Joke Schauvliege (CD&V).

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Vague regulations?

International regulations do not make it easy for inspection agencies to check for tampering with blending agents. While marine fuel must meet international standards, there are no ISO standards for the "diluents" used to arrive at that marine fuel.

Oilchart management defends itself by arguing that there is no 'blacklist' of unauthorized diluents. They also believe that the four criteria have been met to receive the so-called end-of-waste status. This means that the substances are no longer waste because they have become products (for example, after recycling).

Neither OVAM nor the environmental inspectorate is convinced of this. Moreover, OVAM noted that Oilchart did not clarify the diluent the company used.

"Very diverse diluents are used in the bunker world, seeking to minimize costs," OVAM wrote in correspondence with the Schauvliege administration. "There are indications that quite a few bunker companies are using waste streams as diluents for lucrative reasons."

The older duo behind Oilchart still brings in the extenuating circumstance of having a clean criminal record in Belgium. That does not apply in the Netherlands, however. In 2017, the Rotterdam District Court convicted the company of collecting shipping waste without a permit and transporting non-usable fuel oil to Belgium. This verdict was upheld by the court in 2018 and by the Supreme Court in 2020.

The oil trader was fined 30,000 euros.