Intertek: Off-Spec Bunkers for North American ECA Came From Outside The US

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Monday March 31, 2014

The majority of off-spec fuel samples from bunkers being used for compliance with the North American Emissions Control Area (ECA) regulation originated from outside of the U.S., according to data from fuel testing agency Intertek.

"In relation to the U.S. ECA what we did notice was more sulfur issues, and the immediate feeling was that this was contributed to by an increase in off specs in U.S. ports as a direct result of the introduction of the ECA," Steve Bee, Global Business Director, Intertek (Lintec) ShipCare Services, said this month at the Connecticut Maritime Association (CMA)'s Shipping 2014 annual conference.

"But that presumption turned out to be incorrect. When we examined the data in more detail it became apparent that the issues were in fact related to fuels that were supplied outside the U.S. ECA from ports across West Africa and Western Europe that were actually feeding the trade routes into the U.S. waters."

Introduced in August 2012, the North American ECA effectively requires all ships operating within 200 nautical miles of the U.S. and Canada coastline to use a marine fuel with a sulfur content not exceeding 1.0 percent by weight.

On January 1, 2015 that limit will drop to 0.10 percent by weight, but California has already implemented the stricter limit of 0.10 on the sulfur content of marine fuel for ships operating within 24 nautical miles of the state's coastline.