The required market transition to low-sulphur bunker fuels is under way with an increasing number of ports offering new low-sulphur grade fuel oils following a recent uptick in demand, the International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA) said.
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) 2020 Regulation will require vessels to use lower-sulfur bunkering fuel effective January 1, 2020.
The IBIA\’s Unni Einemo said shipowner demand for IMO-compliant grades with less than 0.5% sulphur has been limited to smaller quantities for trials and testing since early 2019. However, more suppliers across the world have started to offer IMO-compliant grades, especially since September. Demand for 0.5% sulphur fuel oil has been increasing rapidly since mid-September, and is only expected to grow as the year ends.
IBIA said IMO-compliant fuel is increasingly selling in Singapore and Fujairah, the two biggest bunkering ports, as well as in smaller ports around the globe. 0.5% fuel oil is also available across northwest Europe, especially in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub, at Skaw in Denmark, at Gothenburg in Sweden, at Hamburg in Germany, in the Baltic Sea and at English Channel ports. As for southern Europe, ports such as Las Palmas, Algeciras and Barcelona in Spain, Gibraltar and Malta, some Italian ports, Istanbul and Novorossiysk are offering 0.5% fuel oil.
Between 5-15% of marine fuel demand is now for 0.5% sulphur products. IBIA expects that other large European and worldwide ports will start providing 0.5% fuel oil very soon.
\”Most regions have 0.5% fuel oil on offer in at least some ports,\” IBIA said. In addition, 0.1% sulphur Marine Gasoil (MGO) is available almost everywhere. Even though some shipowners are waiting until December to make the switch to 0.5%, its supply is in increasing demand in many locations.
