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The 75th session of International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 75) has in November 2020 adopted amendments to MARPOL Annex VI, introducing a method for fuel oil sampling from ships' fuel oil tanks to verify the sulphur content. The new amendments will enter into force on 1 April 2022.
Recent reports of a rise in fuel contamination cases have increased the industry’s concerns over quality and safety of blended fuels as 2020 approaches. And for a good reason. A spike in demand for new low sulphur blends from 1 January 2020 will greatly increase the risk of contamination. Lars Robert Pedersen, Deputy Secretary General of BIMCO calls for bunker states to take responsibility.
BIMCO, together with the other industry organisations, acquired data on all commercial fuel samples tested by Veritas Petroleum Services (VPS) during 2020. This VPS data clearly shows the geographical differences between the standard of the fuels delivered to ships. Europe and the US seem to have the poorest performance. This is both in relation to sulphur compliance which may lead to increased air pollution, and ISO 8217 quality parameters, which may impact the safety of ships. BIMCO is providing IMO with data on very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) sulphur compliance and ISO 8217 fuel quality problems. The submissions include an invitation to countries to consider implementing and enforcing a licensing scheme for bunker suppliers operating within their jurisdiction. Such a measure should help combat the high level of problems in some of the poorer performing geographical regions.
BIMCO has developed a monitoring service for bunker prices, with data provided by MABUX, which is now available to all BIMCO members here .
The maritime industry’s transition to the sulphur regulation from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) which came into force on 1 January 2020 has not been without problems. Since fuel oil properties are fluctuating, it is expected that quality and safety problems will continue to be a challenge for the global shipping industry.
In 2019, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, jet fuel contributed an estimated 8% of oil products’ cargo demand. When travel restrictions were imposed during the pandemic, air travel suffered significantly and jet fuel shipments in 2021 were down approximately 33% compared to 2019. Airlines’ capacity has been on a slow recovery path since bottoming out in April 2020 but remains significantly lower than 2019 levels.
BIMCO has at the latest meeting at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) called for clarification and guidelines for shipowners and flag states in cases when ships cannot buy compliant fuel in a port from 1 January 2020.
