DHT announced that during this year it will equip scrubbers on two thirds of its VLCC fleet. Namely, the retrofit program includes 16 ships built between 2004 and 2012, while two newbuildings had also scrubbers installed. This increased the total number of ships with scrubbers to 18 out of 27.
DHT believes that scrubbers are an economical way to comply with the 2020 sulphur cap. It explained that fifteen of the scrubbers that it will install will clean the sulphur content in the exhaust gas down to 0.1%. Thus, these ships will be able to sail in emission control areas (ECA) and ports, where permitted.
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Moreover, DHT’s fuel tank lay-out enables the company to conduct several grades of fuels, enabling the company to consume compliant fuels with 0.5% or less sulphur content.
We have elected this configuration in anticipation of countries implementing stricter rules related to use of scrubbers when ships operate in their respective near seas and ports
It seems that the scrubber market is on the uptake, as during November, companies such as GOGL, Danaos, MPC, Torm, Frontline, Seanergy chose to retrofit their vessels.
What is more, Scorpio Bulkers has also signed an agreement with third parties to purchase scrubbers for 18 of its vessels in 2019 and for 10 of its vessels in 2020. The total value of these agreements reaches $42.4 million. The scrubbers will have ‘hybrid ready’ design, which enables them to be upgraded to a ‘closed loop’ configuration in the future.
