UAE tightens HSFO bunker regulations

Vessels refuelling with high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) at all United Arab Emirates (UAE) ports will now have to submit a copy of an International Air Pollution Prevention (IAPP) certificate, proving that the ship has a working scrubber, the country's Ministry of Energy has said.

The ministry has issued a notice requesting port authorities to confirm receipt of an IAPP certificate before delivering bunker fuel with a sulphur content above 0.5pc, the limit introduce by International Maritime Organisation (IMO) as of 1 January 2020. Scrubbers are exhaust gas cleaning systems that allow ships to continue burning cheaper HSFO as a bunker fuel without contravening IMO regulations.

While the majority of shipping companies, mindful of reputational risks, comply with the IMO regulation, policing all vessels is a difficult challenge.

"There was a concern by the UAE authorities that some shipowners continued buying the cheaper fuel, without even having a scrubber on board," one Fujairah bunker trader said. Delivered HSFO bunker prices in the UAE port of Fujairah, the world's third-largest bunkering centre, have in recent weeks been around $275-300/t cheaper than 0.5pc sulphur bunker fuel.

The share of HSFO in bunker sales in Fujairah has been rising as more scrubber-equipped vessels have been put into use over the past three years. HSFO now accounts for around 20pc of Fujairah's 600,000-650,000 t/month of bunker sales, according to Argus estimates.

By Elshan Aliyev