EMEA News
ECA Fuel Switching "Not Rocket Science," Shippers Report No Problems
Major shipping industry players last week agreed at the 37th The Motorship Propulsion & Emissions Conference in Hamburg that fuel switchovers necessary to meet new Emissions Control Area (ECA) rules had caused no problems, The Motorship reports.
United Arab Shipping Co. (UASC), Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), Brise Bereederung, and Solvang ASA said they had experienced a problem-free two months since new ECA rules came into force.
"We were very well pre-warned before the requirements came in," said Stefan Lindberg, Technical Director of Brise Bereederung.
While early experiences have been good, added Solvang ASA Fleet Director Tor Øyvind Ask, shippers should remain mindful of potential problems.
In particular, careful monitoring of fuel consumption will be important, he said, as internal leaks are more likely to result from the use of less viscous, lower sulfur fuels.
But "fuel switching is not rocket science," said Maesrk Maritime Technology's Regulatory Affairs Director, Niels Bjørn L Mortensen at the conference, adding that Maesrk Line had completed more than 2,000 fuel switches with almost no incidents while adhering to sulfur rules in place in California since 2006.
In addition, complexities surrounding new, ECA-compliant "hybrid fuels" with mixed characteristics of residual and distillate fuels are manageable, said Armelle Breneol, EAME Marine Logistics Advisor, ExxonMobil.
"New formulations introduced as a result of new legislation mean more potential compatibility issues," said Breneol.
"But the issue of compatibility is not new and with care it is easy to address."
Consistency of enforcement within the European ECA remained a topic over which shippers were concerned.
But Ulf Petereit, an Inspector with the Hamburg Waterways Police, said 95 percent of the 600 vessels his force had monitored were in compliance with the new regulations.
This week, the Port of Gothenburg estimated that 80 percent of 200 vessels, whose sulfur oxides emissions were tested in the first two weeks of January, were in compliance of new ECA rules.
