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August of next year will see some major changes for marine navigation. It’s when the North American ECA will come into force, introducing a 1% sulphur restriction, in line with the Baltic and North Sea Emission Control Areas (ECAs). According to London-based shipbrokers Gibson, this change is expected to have a significant impact on shipping. “The sulphur level in all ECAs is due to be further reduced to a 0.1% sulphur fuel limit from January 2015, which again is likely to have a major impact. Beyond this, the next major issue is the proposed IMO legislation shifting all bunkers to less than 0.5% sulphur, due to be introduced globally in 2020. However, it is highly unlikely that there will be sufficient availability of low sulphur fuel oil to meet this requirement by 2020 and the IMOs review process planned for 2018 is almost certain to delay the introduction of this low sulphur requirement until 2025.
At this time the reduction could leave owners with the decision to effectively rule out the use of all residual fuel, switching to low sulphur fuels such as distillate (with even LNG being discussed). However, the use of new technologies like scrubbers to meet the strict sulphur regulations may offer an alternative, although pilot projects suggest that current solutions may not yet be commercially viable. Nonetheless, with low sulphur prices as much as $80/tonne above high sulphur earlier this year, there could be a strong economic incentive to push these new technologies forward. Whilst there is huge uncertainty surrounding the scale of impact on shipping, it appears the only certainty is that this issue is not going to go away” said Gibson in its latest weekly report.
It’s worth noting that when the IMO (MARPOL Annex VI) capped today’s level of allowed sulphur content in marine fuels at 4.5% in 2005, the impact on bunker fuel availability was limited as few cases of heavy fuel oil (HFO) exceeded this sulphur cap. Gibson also mentioned that “following political pressure to further reduce sulphur emissions from shipping, a new set of sulphur requirements within MARPOL Annex VI are going to be implemented through the timetable outlined below. The next step will be introduced on 1st January 2012, when the global sulphur cap will be reduced to 3.5%. Whilst this may cause some tightness in availability at Fujairah and some Far East locations, it again appears manageable and likely to have only a limited impact” said Gibson.
Complete Post at:
http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/en-gb/News.aspx?ElementId=b66a39f4-3134-4185-b61d-6465f2a79501
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