World Bunkering > News > Bunkering Blog > Environmental laws are not optional

When I became the editor of World Bunkering some five years ago the industry was mainly concerned with quantity and quality issues. They are still around of course, witness the current discussion about revising ISO 8217 and the apparently inevitable introduction of flow meters.

Then environmental issues were just starting to impact on the bunker industry. IMO had been quietly working away on NOX and SOX for some time but the industry was just beginning to realise how much regulation would change the way it does business.

Today environmental regulation is the main issue for the industry. Sulphur is more or less done. CO2 is the debate of the day. There is though a tendency throughout the bunker industry and the wider shipping industry to ’put off the evil day’ when it comes to environmental legislation. The North Sea SECA has been in operation for a while now but there are noises from suppliers that sales of low sulphur fuel have not been quite as buoyant as may have been expected.

Now it seems that many owners, particularly of tankers, have been caught out by EU Directive 2005/33/EC which requires that, with effect from January 1, 2010, member states must take all necessary steps to ensure that ships at berth in EU ports do not use marine fuels with a sulphur content exceeding 0.1 per cent by mass.

At an industry gathering a couple of weeks ago I was more than a little surprised to find that senior figures in the marine insurance sector and most of the shipping journalists present seemed to think that the EU had relented and that ships could happily berth in EU ports and carry on burning non-compliant fuel in their boilers if these had not been modified for using 0.1 sulphur fuel. I was actually so surprised I thought I had missed something and checked with IBIA as soon as I could.

As most IBIA members will have seen the secretariat has issued a statement refuting rumours to the effect that, because of the potential safety risks associated with the switch-over on ships with unmodified boilers, the deadline may have been put back.

For the record IBIA says that although the European Commission has signified its awareness of the potential dangers associated with the switch-over to low-sulphur fuel while in port, and has recommended to EU states that they enforce the regulations with a degree of flexibility for a transitional period in those cases where there is detailed evidence of the existence of an approved plan for vessel and/or boiler modification, the directive is nevertheless now in force and EU member states are obliged to enforce it. This means, IBIA says, that all non-compliant ships are at risk.

It remains to be seen how flexible EU states are going to be on this issue but I imagine  a good few ships are having modifications to their boilers done right now.

But there is another point for owners to bear in mind. Port state control authorities around northern Europe have now really started to pay attention to the fuel issue. Those ships that cannot prove they are using IMO compliant low sulphur fuel within the SECAs, quite apart from EU compliant fuel while alongside the the berth, are likely to be in for an uncomfortable time.

Owners who have taken a relaxed attitude towards the new controls bunkers need to change the way they operate, and quickly. Taking bunkers is no longer just about making sure the quality and quantity are right.