Scorpio Tankers stands to save between $100m and $125m in bunker fuel costs per year once exhaust-gas scrubbers are installed on 95 targeted vessels, the company is telling investors.
It is the first time Emanuele Lauro-led Scorpio has put a number on the expected returns from its scrubber programme, which would provide compliance for all but 14 smaller vessels in its fleet for the IMO 2020 sulphur emissions deadline on 1 January.
New York-listed Scorpio is presenting the estimates at an investment conference hosted by Stifel bank in Florida later today and has made the data available on its website.
The savings figures assume spreads of $200 and $250 per tonne between high-sulphur fuel filtered by scrubbers and marine gas oil to be burned on vessels not using scrubbers.
They also assume full installation aboard Scorpio’s fleet of 45 medium-range (MR), 12 long-range one (LR1) units and 38 long-range two (LR2) product tankers.
Under current plans, Scorpio will not have the full complement installed by the 1 January IMO deadline, however, as some of the retrofits will be completed this year and the remainder within 2020.
Work is expected to be completed on 25 MRs, seven LR1s and 30 LR2s prior to 1 January. Savings estimates based just on those vessels would be between $66m and $83m.
All the Scorpio estimates are based on 2018 fuel consumption figures for the fleet. They also assume that scrubbers do not operate in port or within any Emission Control Area (ECA) zone.
Scorpio and other owners who have opted for the exhaust cleaning systems will keep a close eye on next week’s meeting of IMO’s Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR) subcommittee, where the technical groundwork for final rules on scrubbers will be hashed out.
Some environmentals have urged tougher standards for monitoring and testing discharge water from the devices. Scorpio has been among those urging the IMO to stand firm with existing standards.
Scorpio is using what it believes may be conservative estimates on the fuel spread, as Bloomberg projections of the forward spread between high-sulphur and 0.1% gasoil for 2000-2022 comes in at $289 per tonne.
Scorpio’s cost is expected to be between $1.5m and $2.5m per vessel, with 60% of that financed.
