Predicting that shipping lines will need to begin buying compliant fuels by the middle of next year, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has released free guidance on implementation planning to help ensure compliance with the global sulfur cap for ships’ fuel oil.
The ICS guidance has been prepared for the vast majority of ships that will comply after January 1, 2020 to the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) 0.50% m/m or less sulfur content requirement for fuel oils, the chamber said in a statement.
ICS Secretary General Guy Platten explained: “Shipping companies may need to start ordering compliant fuels from as early as the middle of 2019, and they are strongly recommended to commence developing implementation plans as soon as possible.”
Apart from the significant additional cost of compliant fuel, ICS said implementation of the global cap will be far more complex than for the previous introduction of Emission Control Areas. This is because of the sheer magnitude of the switchover and the much larger quantities and different types of fuel involved, as well as continuing uncertainties about the availability, safety, and compatibility of compliant fuels in every port worldwide.
ICS argues that if a ship has a suitably developed implementation plan, then the ship’s crew should be in a better position to demonstrate to port state control that they have acted in “good faith” and done everything that could be reasonably expected to achieve full compliance.
“This need to demonstrate good faith could be particularly important in the event that safe and compliant fuels are unavailable in some ports during the initial weeks of implementation,” said Platten. “And IMO has provisionally agreed that Port State Control authorities may take into account the ship’s implementation plan when verifying compliance with the 0.5% sulphur limit.”
The new ICS guidance explains that the implementation process will need to address the possibility that some ships may need to carry and use more than one type of compliant fuel in order to operate globally. This could introduce additional challenges such as compatibility between different available grades of fuel that could have significant implications for the safety of the ship as well as its commercial operation.
The global trade association also stressed that the full implementation picture is far from complete, and that primary responsibility for ensuring that compliant and compatible fuels will be available rests with oil suppliers, as well as with IMO member states.
ICS also wants to see more progress by governments on addressing outstanding safety issues, including serious concerns about the fuel quality of new blended fuel oils, at the next meeting of the Maritime Safety Committee in December 2018.
“Provisional Guidance to Shipping Companies and Crews on Preparing for Compliance with the 2020 Global Sulphur Cap” can be found on the ICS website.
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