Players in the marine fuels market say the bunker sector is well prepared for when the IMO 2020 sulphur cap kicks in on 1 January next year, but they argue that many shipowners are only now waking up and may have left it too late.

At an IMO 2020 seminar organized by pro-scrubber group Clean Shipping Alliance in Singapore yesterday, Rahul Choudhuri, chairman of the Singapore Shipping Association’s Marine Fuels Committee, said that refineries in Singapore are ready to provide low and high sulphur fuels

“We have already seen these new fuels come into the picture. Our take is that these are good fuels, much better than the 0.1% blends that came out in 2015.

“The industry is ready,” said Choudhuri, who is also fuel management company Veritas Petroleum Services’ managing director for Asia, Middle East and Africa.

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Statistics from a CE Delft study presented by Unni Einemo, director and IMO representative for the International Bunker Industry Association indicated that there will be a total global demand for 320 million metric tons of various types of marine fuels in 2020, of which 36m tons (11%) will be high sulphur fuel; 233m tons (73%) will be fuel with a sulphur content between 0.1% and 0.5%; 39m tons (12%) will be fuel with a sulphur content less than 0.1%; and 12m tons will be LNG (4%).

Despite the readiness of the bunker sector, Choudhuri stressed that more shipowners need to put into place a comprehensive IMO 2020 implementation plan.

“Not everyone is at the same level of preparedness. If you don’t have a robust fuel management system in place, you will be in trouble.

Echoing Choudhuri’s comments was Douglas Raitt, Lloyds Register’s global fuel oil bunkering advisory services manager.

“Yes, we have enough fuel, but I personally believe that the shipping industry is ill prepared for 2020.

“Some owners are only now considering ship implantation plans. Crikey, that is only with three months left,” he said.

That, he stressed, left little time to develop plans, train crews, and prepare tanks for new types of fuels and blends.