World Bunkering > News > Bunkering Blog > Changing times

Do you remember a few short years ago how Intertanko shocked much of the bunker and shipping industries by arguing the case for switching the commercial fleet from residual fuel oil to distillates such as MGO?

Then the argument was that not only would it be way of easily meeting new sulphur content caps but much was made of the health and safety benefits of using distillate. Also, it was pointed out that using distillate would avoid the purifying that is required with heavy and the subsequent production of sludge. Later debate on particulate matter would take some of the shine off the its “clean fuel” image but then it was possible to argue that distillate’s time had come.

In some circles those who argued the case for continuing to use residual fuel were seen almost as unreasonable party spoilers. Proponents of the switch to distillate had little time for the argument that there was not enough capacity to produce sufficient stocks.

In that light it is interesting to read DNV Petroleum Services’ (DNVPS) statement promoting its new  data service on marine distillate quality delivered to commercial vessels globally.

DNVPS managing director Tore Morten Wetterhus warns that progressively stricter fuel regulations and rising demand for marine distillates are putting suppliers under increasing pressure. He says the latest DNVPS distillate data suggests critical quality issues are arising concerning flashpoint, density, viscosity and sulphur.

About 2% of distillates tested by the company in the first quarter of 2010 did not meet flashpoint requirements. That is a worry for the owners who received that 2% but does not sound too alarming. But DNVPS also says that over 70 percent of distillate deliveries from the major Antwerp-Rotterdam-Amsterdam (ARA) bunkering area were very close to the specification limits for this parameter and had little margin for error. It warns that if this trend continues, any minor quality glitch could lead to a massive flow of off-specification products into the market.

It also seems that short delivery is becoming a significant problem with distillates. DNVPS says that close to 20% of all global distillate deliveries in the first quarter had over 10kg/m³ density differences between the values stated in bunker delivery notes and laboratory-tested values.

It notes that, as marine fuels are bought by weight but delivered by volume, lower actual densities imply short-delivered quantities.

It is to be hoped that the industry will address these problems and no doubt owners will put distillate deliveries under greater scrutiny. But given the difficulty the refiners are likely to have to produce enough distillate for increasing shipping industry demand it difficult not to conclude that quality disputes involving distillate are likely to increase over the next few years. It appears that despite those hopes of a few years ago, switching to distillates can bring its own problems.

Now, however, it seems possible that the longer term replacement for IFO may not be distillate at all but LNG. Now that it is legal to use LNG as a fuel for all ships and not just LNG carriers, there is something of a bandwagon taking shape. Most recently Germanischer Lloyd’s boss Hermann Klein has made clear his support for using LNG. Not so long ago he strongly supported a move to distillates. How things  can change in a short time.

Oh, and of course, Singapore’s Ecospec has come up with scrubber that not only complies with IMO’s SOX and NOX emission abatement requirements but also takes out around 70% of the CO2 in the emission stream. That offers the prospect of merchant shipping continuing to rely on residual oil for a long time yet.

Distillate is looking not only like an expensive option but also one that brings its own problems with it.