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Commissioners at the Port of Oakland are reported to have approved a new incentive scheme which could also benefit bunker sales at the Californian port.

According to industry sources, the new one-year program aimed at maintaining or raising cargo volumes will provide discounts and incentive payments to both ocean carriers and marine terminal operators.

Ocean carriers will reportedly receive an incentive payment of $20 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) for every loaded container that moves via rail between the Port of Oakland and locations outside California.

Meanwhile, terminal operators will be given a $5 per TEU discount for every loaded container that moves by rail between the Port of Oakland and locations outside of California.

The new incentives could be a much-needed boost to bunker sales at the West Coast port during the current economic downturn.

The 12 month program would be retroactive to January 1st 2009 and would run up until December 31st 2009, market sources said.

Earlier this month Port of Oakland commissioners approved a Maritime Air Quality Improvement Plan (MAQIP), aimed at cutting diesel pollution from port-related operations by 85 percent by the year 2020.

According to a December 2008 health risk assessment by the California Air Resources Board (ARB), sources within the port contribute 30 percent of the diesel particulate matter in West Oakland, a community of 22,000 people adjacent to the port.

Commenting on the plan, Richard Sinkoff, Director of the Environmental Programs and Planning Division, said “One way we'll reach our 85% goal is by working with our tenants to dramatically cut emissions from ship engines while they’re at dock."

Sinkoff added, “As a transportation services agency, part of the Port’s role is to assist our customers and tenants in the complex task of complying with new emissions regulations that will help clean up the air.”