ICS wants action over low sulphur switch

ICS has been expressing concern for some time about whether sufficient fuel will be available to allow ships to comply with strict IMO regulations aimed at reducing sulphur emissions and whether, as result of insufficient supply, costs will rocket.

In an important submission to the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), which meets in October, ICS is continuing to press IMO to start work now on a study that can consider the impact all of the major changes required by the new MARPOL regime.

There is already a formal mechanism in MARPOL Annex VI for IMO to complete a review by 2018 of progress towards the 0.5% sulphur fuel that must be used globally outside of ECAs by 2020 or 2025 – but ICS argues that this won’t be enough time to act on any issues.

Peter Hinchliffe, ICS secretary general, said: “It is essential that a global fuel availability study is carried out sufficiently in advance of 2020 in order to give the refiners adequate time to invest and react. The major refinery upgrading required could take a minimum four or five years, perhaps longer, and we fear that completing the study in 2018 would simply be too late.”

ICS has suggested that a preliminary IMO study of the availability of compliant fuel, be conducted using the introduction of the 0.1% sulphur in fuel requirements coming into effect with the ECAs in 2015. Such a study would provide a projection of possible scenarios resulting from the introduction of the 2015 0.1% ECA standard, against the background of the world market.