Alternative Marine Fuels: Are We There Yet?

Net-zero: not by 2050. Image Credit: Ship & Bunker

A snap audience poll taken at the Argus Oil and Future Fuels Forum has highlighted a certain lack of optimism in shipping's ability to reach net-zero by 2050.

Asked by the marine fuels panel to rate the shipping sector's chances of hitting its net-zero target, a majority of the audience, some 80%, put the sector's chances between 25% to 50%.

Divining the reasons behind such reticence is beyond the scope of a snap poll but the Argus panel did an effective job of charting where the market for alternative marine fuels has got to in 2025.

Biodiesel and liquefied natural gas are the established front runners in providing shipowners and operators with low carbon fuel solutions. But as the market matures, other fuels will grow market share.

Methanol and ammonia might be distant prospects now but are likely to form part of the overall picture where a 'dizzying array of products and pricing methodologies' will prevail. But that prospect remains some way off.

Nearer the mark is the maritime sector's experience of the European Union's FuelEU Maritime regulation. Here ship pools may emerge as an effective response from buyers to a carbon-priced market as a pool allows ship operators more flexibility to meet FuelEU requirements and secure a good deal.

Whether pools become a more generalised response to the 'dizzying array' of products and pricing remains to be seen.

To support the market's development and to provide market transparency, Argus publishes reference prices for four alternative marine fuels.

The Argus Oil and Future Fuels Forum took place on February 25 in London as one of a series of industry events in the UK capital during IEWeek.