IBIA Moots Proposal for Non-Compliant Bunker Ban When 0.5% Global Sulfur Cap Comes into Force

Robin Meech, vice chairman of the IBIA, asserts that an IMO global sulfur cap of 0.50% will create a need to "level the playing field."

Robin Meech, vice chairman of the International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA), says that there will be a need to "level the playing field" within the international shipping industry once a global sulfur cap of 0.50 percent is implemented by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2020 or 2025.

Meech further suggested that IBIA should put forward a new regulation to the IMO that would prohibit vessels of countries signatory to MARPOL Annexe VI from possessing non-compliant fuel onboard.

The comments are said to have come in Meech's keynote speech last week at the IBIA Annual Convention in Cancun, Mexico.

The conference hosted a number of speakers including Leonor Mondragon Lopez, Director General of Navalmex Combustibles S.A. de C.V., who spoke about the bunker market in Mexico, where policy reforms are now being implemented that she says offer "a promising future with much greater freedom for private companies to own and operate bunkering faculties."

Niki Vukelja, Vice Chair of the Panama Maritime Chamber, speaking on the Panama Bunkering Procedure project, commented that it is still unclear the exact effect that the Panama Canal expansion, expected for completion in 2016, will have on the regional bunker market.

Other speakers included Anne Ghent, CEO of Ventrin Petroleum Company Limited, who is said to have presented an overview of the Caribbean bunker market, Nigel Draffin, an independent consultant, who reported on the situation in Europe, and Muhammed Elfian Harun of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), spoke on organisation's objective to promote Singapore as a "safe and trusted bunkering port."

In February, the IBIA said bunker fuel quality was improving markedly, partly as a result of a campaign by the association.