BIMCO hits UN's 0.5pc marine sulphur cap timing as 'irresponsible'

BIMCO hits UN's 0.5pc marine sulphur cap timing as 'irresponsible' WORLD shipowners, who control 65 per cent of tonnage afloat, say it would be "irresponsible" for the UN's International Maritime International Organisation to impose severe 0.5 per cent sulphur cap on marine fuel by 2020 because of its sheer scarcity.  The shipowners' association BIMCO (Baltic and International Maritime Council) says that is what the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee wants to impose on world shipping with its MEPC 70 rule - regardless of the consequences. BIMCO says the official IMO study that assessed availability of fuel oil failed to fully address several critical factors. First, much of the fuel the IMO says will be available is unsafe to store and use aboard ships, reports London's Tanker Operator. "The study fails to model the disruption that an overnight introduction of the global cap (from 31st December, 2019) would cause," said the BIMCO statement. A BIMCO study, done by EnSys and Navigistics, was commissioned to assess the availability of IMO approved low sulphur marine fuel. It concluded there would be insufficient low sulphur fuel supply available in 2020, while maintaining uninterrupted supply of fuel to all other sectors of the global economy. "It is clear that the IMO study is flawed, meaning it is not possible to determine from the study that there would be sufficient fuel available in 2020," said BIMCO deputy secretary general Lars Robert Pedersen.  As a result, BIMCO said that it was not possible to determine whether the global refining industry will have the capacity to produce enough marine fuel by 2020. BIMCO also questioned whether fuel supply to other sectors of the global economy could face major disruption if these problems were not addressed beforehand.