Maersk Oil Trading’s Niels Henrik Lindegaard said that shipping can meet the strict sulfur emission reductions that IMO has planned for 2015 and 2020, But if the industry doesn’t immediately begin researching the safest, most sensible ways to do that, he said, it will be costly for everyone.
As the rules are now, if the shipping industry is to comply with the 2015 sulfur reductions required by IMO first in the English Channel, Baltic and North Seas as well as a 200 nautical mile zone around the U.S. and Canada, the only available fuel alternative to traditional bunker fuel will be marine gas oil.
The effect on shipping companies from this could be severe. … Since raising the issue recently, Mr. Lindegaard says the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has put flashpoint on the discussion agenda for its marine fuel meeting later this month.