IBIA: No Distillate Fuel Problem Until 2020

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Monday September 16, 2013

Demands for distillate fuel will not become a serious problem until 2020, former International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA)  chairman Nigel Draffin told an audience at London International Shipping Week last week, industry news site Seatrade Global reports.

"I believe, and so do two or three or maybe four others on the IBIA board, quite strongly, that we don't have an availability problem pre-2020," Draffin said.

He said the 0.1 percent sulfur limit within Emission Control Areas (ECAs) that goes into effect in 2015 will not push demand above the available supply of distillate, but the global cap of 0.5 percent scheduled for 2020 is a different story.

"There is enough distillate to cope with 2015-2020, the problem comes when we come to the cap," he said.

"But when the cap comes in, we will have had between five and 10 years to install scrubbers, we will have had between five and 10 years to start with alternative fuel systems, so it isn't that immediate."

Draffin said it would be difficult to push back at the emissions regulations already enacted by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), but it is not necessarily impossible.

The IMO announced a five-year delay in regulations around emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) earlier this year after Russia argued mitigation technology was too expensive and underdeveloped.

The delay prompted criticism from environmental organisations.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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