Tag: fuel quality

ISO informed that it has published the 'ISO/PAS 23263:2019 Petroleum products — Fuels (class F) — Considerations for fuel suppliers and users regarding marine fuel quality in view of the implementation of maximum 0,50 % sulphur in 2020'.

With the official starting date for the global sulphur cap 2020 only a few months away, ship owners and technical managers are still left with a number of issues to resolve. While many owners have decided to install scrubbers already at this stage, the majority opted to switch from HFO to compliant fuels.

The US Coast Guard announced in the Federal Register that it is seeking public comment on a proposal to amend the requirements regulating personnel permitted to serve as a person in charge (PIC) of fuel oil transfers on an inspected vessel.

Mr Tim Wilson, Principal Specialist on fuels, lubes and exhaust emissions at LR, discusses the approaching IMO 2020 regulation and the shipping industry that focuses on clean fuel, trying to avoid segregation risks and contaminated fuel. Mr Wilson highlights that one of the biggest challenges today is being ready to deal with the segregation of the new 0.50% fuel that is coming. 

In this article, Rebecca Penn-Chambers, Syndicate Executive, Eastern Syndicate, provides an overview regarding common issues surrounding notification of off-specification bunker disputes. As Ms. Penn-Chambers says, bunker quality disputes are not a new phenomenon, but there has been an upward trend in the number of disputes.

Following a late June alert regarding contaminated bunkers that were supplied in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Lloyd’s Register Fuel Oil Bunkering Analysis and Advisory Service (FOBAS) issued an update on 12 July, confirming presence of Carbon Tetrachloride in the contaminated fuels. 

Freight forwarder Panalpina has warned its ocean customers of potential disruption to supply chains ahead of the IMO 2020 sulphur cap. The regulators have laid out the rules, but the path for ship owners, operators and carriers to complying with the low sulphur limit remains rocky.

Vitol and Unipec are sending about 700,000 tonnes of contaminated Russian oil to Asia, in order to place the barrels rejected by buyers in Europe. Vitol and Unipec are targeting Chinese independent refiners, or teapots, which are interested in taking the oil. Currently, about 11 million barrels of contaminated Urals are heading to Asia, after being exported from the Baltic port of Ust Luga in the past weeks.

Crude oil exports from the Russian Port of Ust-Luga have been hindered over the last weeks, because of the contamination problem in Russia's Druzhba pipeline network. This network carries around one million barrels per day into European markets. Only this week the Portresumed to loading uncontaminated cargoes.

In light of the 2020 sulphur cap, the frequency of PSC taking spot samples of a ship’s fuel oil to verify its sulphur content is expected to increase significantly after 1 January 2020 and shipowners should prepare their ships and crew accordingly.