Bunkering, i.e. filling out a ship’s fuel tanks, is always subject to authorisation from Customs. The Customs Sea Traffic Centre (MEKE) must be notified about bunkering from ship to ship by email to [email protected]
The Sea Traffic Group (MEKE) of the Electronic Service Centre is open for customer service on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4.15 p.m. In urgent matters, you can contact the on-duty officer at the Electronic Service Centre by email: [email protected] .
Prior to the arrival of a ship, a declaration must also be submitted to the “[email protected]” system.
Fairway dues must also be paid on an arriving ship.
Entry and exit notifications to submitted for bunker fuel
Transport operators are responsible for providing an entry summary declaration/summary declaration and exit declarations to Customs. If a transport operator so wishes, it can also use a representative for submitting declarations.
- For undeclared goods arriving directly from a non-Union country, Finnish Customs requires entry summary declaration IE315, followed by arrival notification and presentation IE347
- When a ship arrives from another Union port and unloads on Finland’s territorial waters or at a port in Finland, Finnish Customs requires summary declaration IE344 and presentation notification IE347 for the goods to be unloaded
- Exit declarations IE547 and IE590 are also submitted for an exiting ship
- If fuel is bunkered from one Finnish ship in commercial traffic to another, declarations on arriving and departing traffic are not submitted
Bunkraus kansainvälisessä liikenteessä olevaan alukseen
Additional information on bunkering to be given on declarations
In the entry summary declaration/summary declaration, the name of the port where bunkering takes place is to be entered in the “Place of unloading” field, along with the text: ”unloading to ship X”. The letter X stands for the IMO number of the ship to be bunkered.
As soon as bunkering to the fuel tank of another ship has taken place outside the port, the ship that has received the fuel, or a representative of that ship, must submit exit manifest presentation IE547 to Finnish Customs, indicating the summary declaration MRN and consignment number. After the exit manifest presentation, exit declaration IE590 must also be submitted.
Goods can also be transported in non-regular vessel traffic under a transit procedure. In that case, the transit procedure is suspended during the transport at sea. A summary declaration (IE315 or IE344) must still be submitted to Customs for all goods to be unloaded at a port of destination in Finland. This is why goods placed under the transit procedure must also be presented at the vessel’s port of destination. The transit declaration must be presented before the transport can continue to the customs office of destination. When the transit declaration is presented, Customs enters the goods as cleared in the AREX system.