Asia/Pacific News
Indian Government Rebukes Ports for Banning Scrubbers
India's government is taking steps to prevent the country's individual port authorities from banning the use of scrubbers without its prior permission.
A circular published by India's Directorate General of Shipping earlier this week noted that some of the country's ports are currently not permitting the use of scrubbers within their jurisdictions, requiring ships to switch to using VLSFO before their arrival.
The circular notes that this does not meet the spirit of the IMO's MARPOL Annex VI regulation, which treats scrubbers as a permitted means of complying with the 0.50% global sulfur limit in place since 2020.
"Any port or local authority proposing to prohibit IMO (MARPOL) compliant ships (certified for alternate means of compliance to IMO 2020) from entering their port or imposing any additional requirements, including, changeover to low sulphur fuel oil, shall submit their request in this regard to the Director General of Shipping, Govt. of India, along with the risk and impact assessment duly undertaken by the respective authority," the directorate general said in the circular.
"No port in India shall prohibit or impose additional measures on ships certified for alternate means of compliance to IMO 2020, unless authorized by the competent authority as above."
Scrubbers rapidly grew in popularity in the run-up to 2020 as a means of continuing to burn cheaper HSFO while complying with the tougher new sulfur limit. This prompted political opposition to the technology in some quarters, with some viewing open-loop scrubber designs as discharging polluted washwater into the sea with a potential risk to the marine environment.
Sales slowed in 2020 as the price spread between VLSFO and HSFO narrowed with the crude price crash early that year, but are expected to increase again this year after a widening of the spread in 2022.
The average difference between Ship & Bunker's G20-VLSFO and G20-HSFO indices of prices at 20 leading bunkering ports reached $240/mt last year, up from $112/mt in 2021 and $92/mt in 2020.
The spread stood at $226.50/mt on Thursday.
