ICS updates Sulphur Cap compliance guidance

Compliance with the 2020 Global Sulphur Cap explores the choices for fuel choices confronting ship operators and crews during the transition period up until 31 December 2019, as well as recommending that shipping companies prepare ship-specific an Implementation Plan for each of their ships.

Introducing such an Implementation Plan and maintaining records on board to demonstrate how the Plan has been followed will help the ship’s crew to demonstrate to Port State Control (PSC) officers that they have acted in good faith on a best-endeavours basis.

The report notes that the need for some ships to carry and use more than one type of compliant fuel in order to operate globally, (owing to port-specific or ECA restrictions), will also raise many practical issues, including potential compatibility issues between different grades of fuel.

This ICS Guidance has been prepared for the vast majority of ships that will comply with the Global Sulphur Cap immediately after 1 January 2020 using fuel oils with a sulphur content of 0.50% m/m or less.

The study notes that important provisions and guidelines are still under development, such as a standard template for Fuel Oil Non-Availability Reporting (FONAR) and on sulphur verification procedures. Related work is also being conducted by various stakeholders to develop industry guidance on safe handling of 0.50% Smax fuels.

Shipping companies need to prepare these Plans as soon as possible, especially as they will need to start purchasing and loading compliant fuels several months in advance of 1 January 2020

Compliance with the 2020 Global Sulphur Cap can be downloaded free of charge from the ICS website here.

The report was updated to reflect decisions taken by the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) in October 2018. The next round of discussions on the subject will take place at the IMO MEPC meeting in May 2019.