Costa Cruises has signed the ‘Genoa Blue Agreement’ promoted by the Genoa and Savona Coast Guard Offices. The document mandates vessels to use marine gasoil with a sulphur content not exceeding 0.10% by mass prior to entering the ports of Savona and Genoa, and not only while the ship is moored as required by current legislation.
SKTI informed that it will increase its offshore oil blending business by four times, reaching from the current 23,000 barrels a day, to 90,000 barrels next year. The company charters a large oil tanker and adds semi-finished products to produce LSFO. What is more, SKTI also plans to retrofit scrubbers on 19 ships.
Genoa-based Bunker Energy promotes the port of Augusta as a leading hub for low sulphur fuel bunkering, for the vessels that sail cross the Mediterranean. The company commented ‘For years, Augusta has been by far the largest petrochemical hub in Italy.’
ExxonMobil introduced EMF.5, its range of engineered marine fuels, specifically designed to help operators comply with the IMO 2020 global sulphur cap. The company says that the new product does not compromise fuel quality. ExxonMobil has also developed a n40BN cylinder oil, to work with low-sulphur fuels. It will be available across its port network along with our EMF.5 range of fuels.
Vitol has began constructing a small oil refinery at its storage terminal in Malaysia, aiming to supply low-sulphur fuel for vessels. The project is expected to be completed in May 2020. The project includes a crude distillation unit that can process 30,000 barrels per day of crude.
Israel’s Oil Refineries have delivered its first cargo of compliant 0.5% sulphur content marine fuel, in line with IMO’s upcoming rules. Namely, the 197,000 barrel per day refinery loaded its first 30,000 tonne cargo of the low sulphur fuel. ORL now joins several other refiners that recently developed new marine fuels to comply with the new regulation.
In light of Iceland’s Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources decision, which bans the use of fuel oil with more than 0.1% sulphur content for ships operating in its territorial waters, Dr Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance, highlighted that the Alliance although supports this decision, they are in favour of generally banning HFO use and carriage as fuel.
Chevron announced that it will bring an IMO-compliant 0.5% sulphur shipping fuel blend to the market by the end of Q3. As Chevron Fuels Technologist Monique Vermeire commented to Reuters, ‘If the shipping company is willing to try it out now we can make it available, but not for continuous purchase.’
On Wednesday, May 5, Sinopec announced the production capability of 10 million and 15 million tons of low-sulphur marine fuel oil in 2020 and 2023. By 2020, Zhoushan and other China major ports will be fully covered with SINOPEC product availability, and more than 50 key overseas ports, including Singapore, will be covered with SINOPEC supply ability.
ExxonMobil informed that it has added another marine lubricant for compliance with IMO 2020 sulphur cap. Mobilgard M420 is a 20 BN oil that has been tested for use in medium speed engines and it has received No Objection Letters from engine builders, including MAN ES and Wartsila.
