News

27 Mar 2008

Three European nations, Germany, Norway and Finland, have submitted a joint proposal to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) supporting a move to distillate bunker fuels for ships. They suggest that the switch away from residual fuels should be completed over the next 10 years. Their proposal is being put to the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), which meets in London next week (March 31 - April 4). A source close to the German IMO delegation told Bunkerworld that a switch to distillate fuel offered the best hope of "a solid and legally robust solution" to reducing ship-generated pollution. The source said other approaches risked a fragmentation of shipping regulations. "Shipping needs global regulations," said the source.
The IMO is at a key stage in updating MARPOL Annex VI, the protocol dealing with emissions from ships.
An IMO sub-committee last month agreed to focus on three options, one calling for the sulphur content of bunker fuel to be reduced to 0.5% by 2015, a target that would most likely be met by using distillate fuel.
The latest proposal from Germany, Norway and Finland suggests a later date of 2018. "We recognize there needs to be sufficient lead-in time," said the source.
The proposal that shipping abandon reliance on residual fuel and switch to distillates was originally made by the independent tanker owners' organization INTERTANKO.
It has proved divisive and controversial within the shipping and refining industries, but has also gathered support.
The arguments against the distillate proposals are based on practicality and cost and warnings that although using distillate bunker fuel would reduce harmful sulphur dioxide emissions it would increase CO2 emissions from refineries.