Americas News
Nakilat: Sooner or Later Everybody Needs to Use Clean Fuel
An executive with Qatar's Nakilat Tuesday said everyone will eventually need to use clean bunkers, and the state-controlled liquified natural gas (LNG) shipper is studying whether to convert its entire "Q-Fleet" to run on LNG bunkers, local media reports.
Speaking to reporters following a board meeting of the Society for Gas as a Marine Fuel (SGMF), fleet management director Samir Bailouni said the industry “is facing a challenge” to find alternatives to traditional bunkers, that are lower in sulfur and produce less emissions.
"At the moment there are no plans to convert more vessels but there is a study, which is in cooperation and total coordination with our charters: Qatargas and RasGas. It is not our sole decision, but it is also a decision by our charters," he said.
One of the vessels in the Qatari Q-Fleet has already been converted to use LNG, the vessel Rasheeda, which was retrofitted in 2015 with a gas-burning M-Type Electronically Controlled – Gas Injection System.
"In 2020, it is expected to be a global requirement to use clean fuel in the shipping industry... sooner or later everybody needs to use clean fuel," Bailouni said, referring to the 0.5 percent global sulfur cap that is expected to come into force in 2020 or - pending a fuel availability study later this year - 2025.
Bailouni also pointed to the adoption of the North American and European 0.10 percent Emission Control Areas (ECAs) as an indication of the overall trend.
In February of 2015 Ship & Bunker reported that the SGMF had released a manual for safely bunkering LNG.
