Maritime
ICS Launches Free Guidance on
Preparing for 2020 Sulphur Cap
Guy Platten,
Secretary
General, ICS
Credits : ics-shipping.org
T
o assist shipping companies prepare for implementation of
the UN IMO global sulphur cap for ships’ fuel oil, ICS with
the support of the Asian Shipowners' Association (ASA) and
the European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA),
has produced – free of charge – some comprehensive
guidance on implementation planning, to help ensure
compliance across the shipping industry with this
regulatory game changer.
The free ICS guidance has been prepared for the vast majority of ships
that will comply after 1 January 2020 using fuel oils with a sulphur content
of 0.50% m/m or less.
ICS Secretary General, Guy Platten, explained:
“Shipping companies may need to start ordering compliant fuels from
as early as the middle of 2019, and they are strongly recommended to
commence developing implementation plans as soon as possible.”
Apart from the significant additional cost of compliant fuel, ICS says that
implementation of the global cap will be far more complex than for the
previous introduction of Emission Control Areas. This is because of the
sheer magnitude of the switchover and the much larger quantities and
different types of fuel involved, as well as continuing uncertainties about
the availability, safety and compatibility of compliant fuels in every port
worldwide.
ICS argues that if a ship – as now recommended by IMO – has a suitably
developed implementation plan, then the ship’s crew should be in a better
position to demonstrate to Port State Control that they have acted in ‘good
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faith’ and done everything that could be reasonably expected to achieve
full compliance.
“This need to demonstrate good faith could be particularly important
in the event that safe and compliant fuels are unavailable in some ports
during the initial weeks of implementation” said Mr. Platten. “And IMO
has provisionally agreed that Port State Control authorities may take into
account the ship’s implementation plan when verifying compliance with
the 0.5% sulphur limit.”
The new ICS guidance explains that the implementation process will
need to address the possibility that some ships may need to carry and use
more than one type of compliant fuel in order to operate globally. This
could introduce additional challenges such as compatibility between
different available grades of fuel that could have significant implications
for the safety of the ship as well as its commercial operation.
While ICS is committed to helping to make the 2020 sulphur cap a
success, the global trade association stresses that the full implementation
picture is far from complete, and that primary responsibility for ensuring
that compliant and compatible fuels will be available rests with oil
suppliers, as well as those IMO Member States which have collectively
agreed to implement this major regulatory change in 2020.
ICS also wants to see more progress by governments on addressing
outstanding safety issues, including serious concerns about the fuel
quality of new blended fuel oils, at the next meeting of the Maritime Safety
Committee in December 2018.
http://www.ics-shipping.org