HANSA 01-2019

Schifffahrt | Shipping
© Vopak
Singapore imposes ban on open-loop scrubbers
A decision by the Singapore Port Authority should deter shipping: The island state
wants to ban the use of so-called open-loop scrubbers in the port area.
The pros and cons of scrubbers are currently being hotly debated, opponents and
supporters are fighting each other with arguments as to whether flue gas scrubbers
are the right answer to the IMO’s new sulphur requirements. Now Singapore
is literally pouring oil into the smouldering fire.
The Southeast Asian island state wants to ban open-loop scrubbers from its port
area. These are open systems that discharge the wastewater (sludge) back into the
sea after the purification process with seawater. Ships equipped with these systems
would have to use low-sulphur fuel instead. But this more than challenges the
investment in the plants.
Scrubbers cost between 2 and $8 mill. $, depending on ship type and size. Shipowners
who invest in such plants could continue to use heavy fuel oil (HFO, 3.5%
sulphur content) after 1 January 2020 instead of the new fuels with a maximum
sulphur content of 0.5%. The price difference should be at least 250 $ per tonne.
If Singapore were to implement its plan, this advantage would be lost in one of
the most important ports and bunker sites for global shipping. The discharge
of the washing water would then be prohibited. Ships equipped with hybrid
scrubbers would have to switch to the closed cycle and use all other IMO-compliant
fuels. The regulation has already been adopted and will enter into force
on 1 January 2020, Andrew Tan, CO of the port authority MPA, is quoted by
Reuters.
tinued use of high sulphur fuel oil (HFO)
in conjunction with a scrubber and LNG.
To meet the demands for 0.5% sulphur
compliant fuels and marine gas oil, ExxonMobil
has undertaken a 1bn. $ upgrade
of its Antwerp plant, and is reviewing a
major upgrade in its Singapore and UK
refineries. ExxonMobil’s Singapore refinery
is the company’s largest, processing
592,000 barrels a day.
The company said: »We have already
made significant investments at a number
of other refineries around the world
in order to increase our production capacity
of cleaner fuels with lower sulphur
content.«
ExxonMobil’s 2020 compliant
0.5% sulphur fuels range from
RMD80 to RMG380 with a density of
between 900 and 970 at 15 degrees Celsius,
and catalytic fine content meeting ISO
8217:2017 parameters.
Shell, on its part, has completed initial
trials for its very-low sulphur fuel
oil (VLSFO), which has sulphur content
of 0.5%. Ship operators who wish to test
Shell’s product may purchase the fuel in
Rotterdam, Singapore and New Orleans.
Shell’s global sales and marketing manager
for marine fuels, Melissa Williams,
said: »We’re giving customers an opportunity
to test the new fuel to become
more familiar with how the fuel performs
in their vessels. We will work with end
users during the trials to assist them in
handling VLSFO.«
The Anglo-Dutch oil major said that
VLSFO will be available in Singapore by
2020.
Part of Belt and Road initiative
Chinese oil refining group Sinopec,
which has a joint venture with BP in Singapore,
will also start supplying compliant
LSFO from August 2019. Sinopec Fuel
Oil Company’s general manager Liu Zurong
said: »Sinopec plans to sell LSFO in
Singapore and some countries that are
part of the Belt and Road initiative.«
Although the IMO’s regulations do not
take effect until 1 January 2020, China
has gone one step ahead by implementing
emission control areas in the Yangtze
River Delta from 1 October 2018. ECAs
in the Pearl River Delta and Bohai Rim
will be implemented on 1 January 2019.
The measures gave Sinopec the impetus
to start producing LSFO and the refiner
has installed desulfurization units in
some of its coastal refineries.
Seoul-based petroleum refining firm
SK Innovation, the parent company
of SK Trading International, is planning
to complete construction of a 1 tr.
KRW (896.8 mill. $) Vacuum Residue
Desulfurisation (VRD) Unit in Ulsan
by July 2020 to produce low sulphur
fuel oil (LSFO). The VRD unit,
the largest capacity among refiners in
South Korea, will be able to produce
38,000 barrels of low sulphur fuel per day.
Through its trading subsidiary, SK Trading
International, SK Innovation expects
to sell more LSFO material in Singapore
to compensate for reduced margins of
LSFO production at Ulsan.
SK Trading International has been
blending 0.1% sulphur LSFO product at
Singapore since 2015, using an oil tanker,
there, they said. SK Trading International
is targeting to sell 100,000 t of LSFO
at Singapore this year, an 85% increase
from sales volume of 54,000 t in 2017. The
company forecasts the Singapore LSFO
market to grow 30% to 190,000 t in 2018,
from 140,000 t in 2017.
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HANSA International Maritime Journal – 156. Jahrgang – 2019 – Nr. 1 51