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A DNV Petroleum Services (DNVPS) survey on the operational impact of the European Union 0.1% marine fuel sulfur limit – enforced on Jan 1 this year – has revealed potentially critical issues. Among the 65 shipping companies that responded to the survey, 40 percent felt the EU member states were not harmonized in applying regulatory standards when verifying compliance with the 0.1% marine fuel sulfur limit. This lack of uniformity could confuse and dampen the shipping community’s confidence in the ability of the EU to enforce its own environmental regulations.
“DNV had previously expressed concerns that the 0.1% sulfur cap effectively meant ships at berth in the community ports must use marine gas oil, notwithstanding many of the boilers on board would not have been modified by Jan 1 to burn this type of fuel,” said DNVPS managing director Tore Morten Wetterhus. “Now that more ships are presumably equipped with the installations to minimize gas oil-related risks, such as fuel pump leakage and boiler explosion, shipboard personnel face new worries not knowing what to expect from port state inspections in different EU ports.”
Close to 40% of the respondents said their vessels did not have the tank flexibility to segregate gas oil and heavy fuel oil. Another 15% reported filter choking and fuel pump seizures when switching from normal sulfur heavy fuel oil to the much more expensive gas oil on entering the EU community ports.
Surprisingly, almost a third of the respondents did not routinely test the quality of their gas oil
purchases, despite the risks of their ships consuming fuels not compliant with the 0.1% fuel sulfur limit.... for the balance see
http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=100146&Itemid=94
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