Inflexible ECA Start Date Sees Brittany Ferries Abandon LNG Bunker Plans

Brittany Ferries said the high cost of the upgrades could not be justified.

French operator Brittany Ferries says a lack of flexibility over the January 1, 2015 start date for compliance with new Emissions Control Area (ECA) rules means that, ironically, it has regretfully been forced to drop plans to power its fleet using even less polluting liquefied natural gas (LNG), Motorship reports.

Beginning in January 1, 2015, operators within ECAs must use a marine fuel with a sulfur content no more than 0.10 percent by weight, or use an equivalent method of compliance.

The company has argued that such equivalent methods of compliance have only very recently become viable options giving it no time to actually use them starting next year, so having to carry the cost of switching to compliant fuel from 2015 and paying to switch to LNG would amount to a "double penalty".

"It is impossible for us to commit to an ecological transition plan which requires such a high level of investment, when, due to the absence of a temporary exemption, we will also incur hefty additional annual costs amounting to tens of millions of euros, due to us being obliged to use diesel instead of heavy fuel oil until our ships have been converted," said Brittany Ferries chairman Jean-Marc Roue. 

"We have worked tirelessly for a temporary exemption but these efforts have sadly been in vain. Without it, the economic viability of our LNG program is in jeopardy. It is my duty to protect the company and its staff at a time when the European ferry industry is confronting numerous challenges.

"All of our partners who have worked with us on this project have demonstrated the technical feasibility and the environmental benefits of this pioneering, futuristic technology. However I have taken the decision to suspend the LNG component of our ecological transition plan. It's a decision I take with much regret and disappointment."

The company had planned to spend £320 million ($510 million) on retrofitting six of its ships for LNG capability, and it has now also cancelled the €270 million ($342 million) order for what would have been the world's largest LNG ferry.

The company says that it will instead turn to MGO and scrubbers in order to meet the regulations, even though using LNG would have seen it go "above and beyond" what is required by the new rules.

In 2012, U.S.-based operator Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE) was granted a conditional exception to ECAs rules to allow the company to convert two of its ships to LNG.