World Bunkering > News > Winter 2010 > Challenges and options

There can be no doubt that the Singapore International Bunkering Conference and Exhibition (Sibcon) continues to be a remarkable success story. This October’s event was the 16th Sibcon and was attended by over 1,100 delegates.

MPA supports metering development

As usual, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) made full use of Sibcon to highlight policy initiatives. The centrepiece was an announcement by Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raymond Lim, that it will set aside Sing$1million (US$0.8 million) from the country’s Maritime Innovation and Technology Fund to support research into mass flow metering. Trials of Coriolis meters have been underway for some time under the auspices of the Singapore Working Group on Mass Flow Metering, consisting of MPA, SPRING Singapore (the national standards body) and key industry representatives.

Singapore clearly sees mass flow metering as the future. Partly of course this is because a more accurate measurement system is a natural progression for the MPA, which has pioneered the development of bunkering standards. There is another practical reason, however. Working group convenor Seah Khen Hee told delegates that the new measuring technology could help increase Singapore’s bunkering capacity by one-and-a-half to two times by allowing faster turnaround and shorter port stays for ships. Administrative costs should also be reduced.

The MPA, which will draft a national standard on the application of mass flow metering, should have been pleased by the debate and the general support for adopting the new technology.

Multimedia bunkering guide launched

During the opening ceremony Mr Lim also launched an interactive multimedia guide for bunkering developed by MPA. The guide is intended to serve as a training and educational tool for the thousands of local and foreign officers involved in bunker delivery in Singapore. The MPA said: “Strategically, by enhancing the knowledge of bunkering professionals in Singapore, [the guide will] allow the bunker industry to innovate and explore new possibilities for the future.”

IBIA has been closely involved in training developments at Singapore and, together with BIMCO, also used Sibcon to launch a new bunkering guide designed primarily for use by ships’ crew. Without stealing the MPA’s thunder, BIMCO Asia Liaison Officer Thomas Timlen, and IBIA Chief Executive Ian Adams used the margins of the conference to release the BIMCO and IBIA Bunkering Guide to delegates in Singapore.

Environmental concerns dominate

However, Sibcon’s main theme this year was Forging Ahead – a New Era for Marine Fuels and there was little doubt from the presentations given over the two days that the new era will be defined by environmental considerations.

Mr Lim told delegates: “As the global economy gradually recovers from the financial crisis, the bunkering industry is presented with new challenges as well as opportunities. Key among them is the need to deal with the issue of environmental protection and climate change. I encourage you to use this opportunity to discuss how the industry can develop innovative solutions while still promoting growth, just as it has successfully done in the past.”

The MPA was keen to stress it was using Sibcon as a sounding board to gauge industry opinion on potential innovations. It said in a statement: “The results of the dialogue will allow marine fuel industry leaders to assess the adoption of cleaner alternatives to current marine fuels in the near future.” Sibcon took place as the industry debate on exactly what is meant by “cleaner alternatives to current marine fuels” continued. Some in the industry clearly now take the view that the future is either distillates or LNG and that was reflected in several presentations.

So Vincent Chong, global director of ExxonMobil Marine Fuels, did everybody a service. He split his address into two. The second half was on measurement integrity and added to the mass flow meter discussion. The first part of Mr Chong’s presentation was definitely the most significant of the conference.

He set out very clearly the challenges facing the industry as a result of the increasingly strict controls on sulphur content and offered a common sense approach to dealing with them. Mr Chong stressed just how much global demand for distillate fuel is likely to grow. He expected demand to surge by 50% by 2030 once the global bunker fuel sulphur cap has been cut to 0.50%. He told delegates: “At this low-sulphur level, distillate or distillate fuel oil blends will be the primary fuel source. This represents a major increase in distillate demand, a product that has expected high growth even without the marine fuel growth.”

However, he qualified this by running through the options available to the industry, including LNG and abatement technology. He made the point that using heavy fuel in conjunction with scrubbers would have advantages in terms of reducing greenhouse gases since producing distillates increases carbon dioxide (CO2) production by between 3% and 10% compared to burning heavy fuel oil on the ship. Overall Mr Chong emphasised the need for an ‘solution’ making use of all the options available.

Another speaker, AP Moller–Maersk group vice president Niels- Henrik Lindegard, had earlier raised an issue regarding distillates which is likely to become the subject of increasing interest. He asked whether the 60 deg flashpoint limit for marine diesel was necessary, given that a much lower flashpoint was allowed for diesel used ashore. That drew an intervention from the floor by Wanda Fabriek who was also the convenor of session on ISO 8217. She said that tests had been carried out and it appeared that safety might not be jeopardised even with a much lower flashpoint.

At a press conference, Mr Lindegaard stressed that safety must not be compromised but pointed out that there could be the possibility of increasing the pool of distillate available to shipping.

Minister Lim reminded delegates that the MPA is about to embark on a joint industry project led by DNV Technology Centre to assess the commercial viability of LNG. He said: “With its low-sulphur content and abundant availability, LNG could be used for short sea hauls and it also presents potential business opportunities for LNG bunkering in the Port of Singapore.”

CSNOx scrubbers attract interest

On the subject of the greenhouse gases, and CO2 in particular, delegates had an update on what is increasingly looking like a major Singapore-originated technical break through. Tadic Tonci, director of environmental strategy for Zodiac Maritime Agencies, was due to present a report on trials of the Ecospec CSNOx system on a Singapore-flag tanker, the White Sea. Unfortunately, Mr Tonci was called away overseas and it fell to Ecospec general manager Tany Tay to present his paper.

The trials process is still not complete but it appears that it will be finished by the end of the year. The system so far seems to be working well on the White Sea and has certainly generated a lot of interest from foreign owners. Engine manufacturer Wartsila has signed a collaboration deal with Ecospec, despite producing its own scrubber. The reason for all the excitement is of course that the CSNOx system is claimed to not only solve the sulphur and nitrogen oxide issues, which are the subject of current Marpol Annex VI regulations, but also to remove a high proportion of the CO2 from ship emissions. Once type approval is obtained, Singapore will have an innovation that has applications going way beyond the maritime industries.

Revisiting the sulphur issue

The emissions issue was given the final panel session of the conference and it says something about industry’s attention to this issue that the convenor, IBIA’s Ian Adams, looked out on a still impressively full conference hall. The panel comprised Norwegian Ministry of Environment senior adviser Sveinung Oftedal, Danish Maritime Authority deputy director general Christian Breinholt, Thome Ship Management managing director Bjorn Hojgaard, Intertanko regional manager Tim Wilkins, SEAaT (Shipping Emissions Abatement and Trading) secretary general John Aitken and Andreas Chrysostomou.

At the end of a wide-ranging discussion Mr Adams asked the panel: “Given what we have heard at the conference and given the importance of climate change should we revisit the sulphur limits?” He asked for one-word answers: “Yes”, “No” or “Maybe”. Mr Chrysostomou abstained while the rest said “No” except for Mr Aitken, who was a “Maybe”, and Mr Wilkins who said he wanted to be asked again in a few years time!

Sibcon was, as ever, as much about networking as the actual conference and exhibition, and this aspect was clearly important to the large number of speakers and delegates who travelled to Singapore for the event. It was pretty much a gathering of the global industry. The venue was the new and mind-blowing Resorts World Sentosa, which added to the buzz of an extremely busy social scene surrounding a workmanlike industry event. Roll on Sibcon 2012.