Non-scrubber fitted ships arriving in Singapore with non-IMO 2020 compliant fuel will have to undergo the costly exercise of replacing that fuel with compliant fuel before being allowed to leave port, the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said today.
Captain M Segar, the MPA’s assistant chief executive, told delegates at the TradeWinds Shipowners Forum being held in Singapore that ship operators limit their purchases of non-compliant fuel before the sulphur ban kicks in on 1 January 2020.
All excess fuel found on board will have to be removed when the carriage ban on non-compliant fuel on board non-scrubber equipped ships comes into effect on 1 March 2020.
Any ship found with non-compliant fuel after that date will have to offload it into shore-side reception facilities and replace it with compliant fuel.
This expensive undertaking will be in addition to other announced penalties including a fine of up to SGD 10,000 ($7,400) and jail time of up to two years for crews and owners.
Segar assured the shipping community that Singapore’s fuel reception facilities have enough capacity to meet expected industry demand.
