The recently-launched Japanese container shipping venture Ocean Network Express (ONE) announced that it sees low-sulphur fuel oil as the most viable option for compliance with the IMO sulphur cap from January 2020, after having studied all the three popular options to comply with the regulation- LSFO, LNG and scrubbers.
Hybrid oil is one of the compliant oils. ONE’s container vessels are equipped to adopt low-sulphur compliant hybrid oil without requiring special modification. At current, we identified this as one of the most realistic and cost-ecient solutions, to enable ONE to be compliant ready by 1 January 2020. We are in discussion with bunker suppliers for specifications.
Regarding scrubbers, ONE noted that there are several existing vessels across its fleet that can be installed with scrubber system. However, due to large size of equipment that scrubbers require, the company will have to sacrifice cargo hold space. Except from this, ONE cited facts surrounding scrubbers installation:
- Vessel is docked to prepare for retro-fitting resulting in phasing-out from service during the period
- Installation typically requires more than one month to complete which leads to long idling time
Concerning the option to construct new ships with scrubbers a priori, ONE said:
As building of new vessel with scrubber may take 2 – 3 years upon order confirmation, this approach will not be in time for ONE to be compliant by January 2020. However, we will consider this approach for possible next phase. ONE is also evaluating to charter vessels with scrubber system to expand the number of compliant vessels in the fleet.
On LNG, the company also highlighted that it also takes 2 – 3 years to build a new LNG-powered ship, which this approach would not be in time for ONE to be compliant by January 2020.
Services where ONE can deploy LNG powered vessel are also limited as there are constraints on availability of LNG bunkering facility. Although our LNG powered vessel deployment plan is not concrete at this moment, evaluation is underway where development of LNG bunkering environment is being further analysed.
