THE International Maritime Organisation's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 73) has turned down an industry proposal for an 'experience-building phase' following the January 1 2020 implementation of the stricter sulphur content cap rule for marine fuel.
BIMCO, Intercargo, Intertanko, the Marshall Islands, Liberia, Panama, the Bahamas and the US had proposed a soft rollout in order to avoid 'unduly penalising individual ships' for non-compliance.
In response to the request MEPC said it expects to take into account new proposals regarding fuel quality at the next MEPC meeting in May 2019, reported London's Tanker Operator.
MPEC has also rejected a challenge to the associated ban on the carriage of high-sulphur fuels. For a ship without an approved sulphur dioxide (SOx) scrubber or other alternative arrangements, the sulphur content of any fuel oil carried for use on board ship will not be allowed to exceed 0.5 per cent after March 1, 2020.
At the beginning of last week came the announcement that the IMO's initial strategy on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from ships had moved forward with the approval of a programme of follow-up actions at MEPC 73.
Feeding into the process towards adoption of a revised strategy in 2023 will be the data collection system on fuel oil consumption of ships over 5,000 gt, which begins on January 1 2019; and a fourth IMO greenhouse gas study to be initiated in the first half of 2019.
BIMCO, Intercargo, Intertanko, the Marshall Islands, Liberia, Panama, the Bahamas and the US had proposed a soft rollout in order to avoid 'unduly penalising individual ships' for non-compliance.
In response to the request MEPC said it expects to take into account new proposals regarding fuel quality at the next MEPC meeting in May 2019, reported London's Tanker Operator.
MPEC has also rejected a challenge to the associated ban on the carriage of high-sulphur fuels. For a ship without an approved sulphur dioxide (SOx) scrubber or other alternative arrangements, the sulphur content of any fuel oil carried for use on board ship will not be allowed to exceed 0.5 per cent after March 1, 2020.
At the beginning of last week came the announcement that the IMO's initial strategy on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from ships had moved forward with the approval of a programme of follow-up actions at MEPC 73.
Feeding into the process towards adoption of a revised strategy in 2023 will be the data collection system on fuel oil consumption of ships over 5,000 gt, which begins on January 1 2019; and a fourth IMO greenhouse gas study to be initiated in the first half of 2019.