IMO: Delay to 0.5% sulfur fuel cap ‘highly unlikely’

There is only a “negligible” chance of a Jan. 1, 2020 deadline for all ocean vessels to begin using low-sulfur fuel being postponed, according to Edmund Hughes, head of air pollution and energy efficiency at the International Maritime Organization.    According to Edmund Hughes, the head of air pollution and energy efficiency at the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization (IMO), a delay in implementing a 0.5 percent limit on sulfur content in bunker fuels is “highly unlikely.”
   “I’d say there’s a negligible chance of Jan. 1, 2020 being postponed,” Hughes said in an interview with the website S&P Global Platts. “The only way the date could be changed is by an amendment to MARPOL Annex VI. It takes a minimum of 22 months for an amendment to be proposed, approved, adopted and then enter into force…We have worked hard to get this decision.”
   As an alternative to burning petroleum products with low sulfur content, carriers can also meet the requirements by fueling their ships with LNG or using scrubbers to remove sulfur from their ship exhaust.
   As noted in an article in the May issue of American Shipper, the shift to using fuel with less than 0.5 percent sulfur content will be costly nonetheless.
   The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) International Transport Forum estimated that the 2020 mandate will cost the container shipping industry an additional $5 billion to $30 billion each year. Another estimate by research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie put that figure closer
to $60 billion annually for the maritime industry at large.