Discussing the challenges of complying with the IMO\u2019s global 0.5% sulphur limit on marine fuels from 2020 were Rear Admiral Paul Thomas, assistant commandant for prevention policy, US Coast Guard and panelists including Omar Abu Omar, president of maritime operations, Gulf Navigation Holding; Claus Graugaard, head of fleet management, Lauritzen Kosan; and Rob Cox, refineries expert, the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow you chose to comply may affect your future competitiveness,\u201d said DNV GL\u2019s Maritime CEO, Knut \u00d8rbeck-Nilssen. \u201cThere\u2019s no one size fits all solution. Know all the options study them carefully and then play your cards right.\u201d<\/p>\n
An electronic poll of the audience suggested that, in fact, the shipping industry was hedging its bets on the fuels question. Just 30% said they believed enough compliant fuel would be \u201ceasily available\u201d by 2020.<\/p>\n
Cox pointed to an IMO report suggesting that refiners can easily produce enough compliant fuel by 2020 while maintaining other production. The truth is somewhat different, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s a massive task for the refining industry.\u201d The number of scrubbers in use will have a major impact on what fuel ought to be produced, he added, noting that no one could say what the future penetration of scrubbers will be.<\/p>\n
Omar expressed concern not only for new refinery spending but also about the timing of the IMO\u2019s 2020 deadline: \u201cWe don\u2019t believe it was carefully considered,\u201d he said. \u201cThe IMO has not (examined) the role of enforcement, yet, and transparency on violations (of existing 0.1% sulphur rules) are not clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas countered: \u201cThe discussion is too often, \u2018Can we push the date back? Is the supply (of compliant fuel) going to be there?\u2019 Well, if you push the date to 2025, then you\u2019ll be having the same discussion in 2022 that we\u2019re having today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graugaard, who oversees Lautirzen Kosan\u2019s fleet of LPG carriers, foresaw a range of technical issues for vessels switching blends from heavy fuel oil to hybrid fuels, including the periodic need to flush clean holds and fuels tanks. \u201cShips in operation have been designed for (specific) purposes, but this will introduce the crew and operators to new complexities at sea,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead of moving complexity onboard ship, why not do it simply onshore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some onboard sulphur reduction technology has not yet been proven, Graugaard warned, while ballast water is still causing finance headaches for ship owners. Those owners must now consider further complex technical installations, or undergo the challenging task of ensuring a steady, low-cost supply of low-sulphur fuel.<\/p>\n
Omar and others cited a lack of incentive for ship owners to comply given the potential gaps in enforcement. The question of whether ship owners or refiners ought to bear the cost of meeting greener targets was also debated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The availability of low-sulphur fuel and the need for consistent enforcement were identified as key issues during class society DNV GL\u2019s \u2018Beyond 2020\u2019 conference at Nor Shipping last month, which explored industry readiness for IMO\u2019s global sulphur cap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-4331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regulation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4331"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=4331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}