Tag: Low-sulfur

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.

Getting closer to 2020, our industry is under pressure to innovate sustainably and show its change-ready profile to the strict climate-alerting regulations. While remarkable progress has been made, it is of much interest to look where the inefficiencies lie as well as how close we are to properly manage CO2, SOx & NOx challenges and meet the goals and aspirations set by IMO.

Brazilian Petrobras informed that it will carry out tests starting in June, aiming to evaluate the production of 2020 sulphur cap compliant fuel. As the company said, it does not know the exact viscosity, but it expects it to be lower. During April, Petrobras produced its first set of 0.5% sulphur fuel oil, from its Isaac Sabba refinery in Manaus. The fuel had 0.34% sulphur content, viscosity of 323cst at 50°C and density of 932.7 kg/m3 at 15°C.

The Green Maritime Methanol consortium has chosen nine vessels for research on the application of renewable methanol as a marine fuel. Namely, new designs, newbuildings, along with existing ships of Boskalis, Van Oord, the Royal Netherlands Navy and Wagenborg Shipping were selected.

The Icelandic Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources has made a draft to amend current regulations regarding the sulphur content of fuels. If adopted, the amendments will not allow the use of heavy fuel oil within Icelandic territorial waters from the start of 2020, with fuels with only 0.1% sulphur content being allowed.

According to Boston Consulting Group, IMO's 2020 sulphur cap will lead to a one to five year disruption in oil and refined products markets. This switch could benefit refiners, producers of shale oil and would reduce prices of HSFO or bunker fuel with a maximum sulphur content of 3.5%.

The Japanese Shipping Company Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), along with shipping and marine supplier Nippon Yuka Kogyo, a NYK Group company, presented a new fuel oil additive for low-sulphur compliant fuel-oil that meets SOx emission requirements.

As the IMO 2020 implementation day is approaching quickly, Shell informed that, in order to help operators prepare, it is offering trials for its very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) in key ports. Shell has also launched a new two-stroke engine cylinder oil specifically for use with engines running on VLSFO.  Shell has already conducted 19 successful trials of the 0.5% sulphur fuel with shipowners at key ports.

Petroineos will be selling 0.5% sulphur marine fuel from its Lavera refinery, which is located on the French Mediterranean coast. The company will start selling the compliant fuel in the fourth quarter this year. Petroineos's IMO compliant fuel will be complying with the current ISO 8217 specifications. As of today, the company is producing 1% low-sulphur fuel oil. Regarding the 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil, its supply will be based on market prices.