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OceanScore reveals ship segments set to feel EUR 1.3 billion sting of FuelEU penalties

Container segment will bear the brunt of FuelEU costs, accounting for 29% of gross penalties, followed by RoPax on 14% with tankers and bulkers each on 13%, says firm.

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OceanScore Managing Director Albrecht Grell

Hamburg-based technology platform OceanScore on Tuesday (9 July) said the financial impact of FuelEU Maritime is focusing the minds of shipping companies as they face potential penalties for non-compliance with greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity reduction targets – and OceanScore has identified those segments set to be hit hardest.

The following is an article by OceanScore elaborating on the matter:

Vessels in the passenger/cruise, container, RoPax, bulker and tanker segments will have significant cost exposure from the complex regulation due to be implemented from 1 January next year, despite a relatively modest initial target of a 2% cut in GHG intensity, according to OceanScore.

The firm’s data analytics team has calculated that shipping will rack up total FuelEU penalties of €1.345 billion in 2025 through analysis of the 13,000 vessels over 5000gt trading within and into the EU/EEA that are subject to the regulation. This is based on data on trading patterns and fuel mix from 2022 – the last full year currently available.

Containers bear burden

The team has been able to determine FuelEU compliance balances and resulting penalties for each vessel using OceanScore’s proprietary data modelling incorporating AIS data, Thetis emissions data, bunker intelligence and advanced analytics/AI. It has factored in the likely fuel mix for each vessel between EU ports and to/from the EU, as well as in ports.

Vessels will be hit with a penalty of €2400 per tonne of VLSFO-equivalent for failing to meet the initial 2% reduction target relative to a 2020 baseline for average well-to-wake GHG intensity from fleet energy consumption of 91.16 gCO2e per megajoule (MJ) – or emissions per energy unit. The GHG intensity requirement applies to 100% of energy used on voyages and port calls within the EU/EEA and 50% of voyages into and out of the bloc.

As with the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), it is the container segment that will bear the brunt of FuelEU costs, accounting for 29% of gross penalties, followed by RoPax on 14% with tankers and bulkers each on 13%.

“It is critical for shipping companies to determine a baseline for expected FuelEU costs to secure proper planning and budgeting processes to compare different mitigation options, as well as to decide what to do with outstanding compliance balances,” says OceanScore Managing Director Albrecht Grell.

“This will require, to a higher degree than the EU ETS, a corporate strategy to determine how to reduce the compliance balance/deficit, how to commercialise a surplus and deal with deficits that remain.”

Wide spread of vessel liabilities

OceanScore has found that liabilities per vessel will differ widely across the various segments due to increasingly diversified fuel choices, including greater uptake of biofuels and LNG. Passenger vessels will be penalised the most with an average of €520,000 per vessel annually, followed by RoPax at €480,000 and RoRo at €314,000, with an average penalty for container ships of only €214,000, according to OceanScore.

Grell points out there are also massive discrepancies between vessels within these segments, with a number of ships in the passenger and RoPax segments exposed to penalties of between €1.8m and €2.5m, and payment obligations for some container ships approaching €1m. This is driven by higher energy consumption simply due to vessel size and trading profile.

While penalties will arise from so-called compliance deficits for vessels using conventional fuels, surpluses totalling an estimated €669m will be generated mainly by vessels fuelled by LNG and LPG with significantly lower carbon intensity.

LNG carriers will account for 78% of the total market surplus and gas carriers 8%, while a further 8% will be generated by container ships that have seen a modest uptake in alternative fuels in recent years.

Pooling can halve costs for the industry

Taking into account this estimated compliance surplus, the net cost of FuelEU penalties for shipping from 2025 would be €680m, which indicates that pooling of vessels can roughly halve the gross burden for the industry.

Penalties will, in segments typically using conventional fuels with comparable carbon intensities such as HFO, LFO or MDO, be roughly proportional to the overall fuel consumption, thus correlating with the EU ETS cost.

Initial costs of FuelEU for most conventionally fuelled vessels, prior to pooling, will be around one-third of those associated with the EU ETS next year when the latter regulation will have 70% phase-in. But ultimately FuelEU is likely to prove a much more costly affair as the requirement for GHG intensity cuts rises to 6% by 2030 and then accelerates to reach 80% by 2050.

“It is therefore incumbent on shipowners to define their strategies not only towards fuel choices and the use of onshore power but also towards handling of residual compliance balances such as pooling, banking and borrowing of balances, to mitigate the financial impact of FuelEU. However, pooling will also come at a cost, while banking and borrowing will incur interest costs and only push liabilities into the future,” Grell explains.

‘Sound administrative processes’

He further points out that pooling compensations paid between different shipping companies will effectively divert cash flow away from the EU that it would otherwise have earned from FuelEU penalties – but that this effect is intended by the regulator to “reward” early adopters of clean fuels.

Another factor that will curb potential income for the EU from this regulation is that the compliance gap has been reduced to only 1.6% by 2022, as average GHG intensity from shipping has come down by 0.4% to 90.82 gCO2e per MJ, mainly due to increased LNG carrier calls to Europe after gas supplies via pipelines from Russia were halted when the latter invaded Ukraine. Given this trend and increasing adoption of biofuels, the 2% compliance gap will probably be closed before the first tightening of reduction targets in 2030.

Grell says the priority for shipping companies, especially at this early stage while cost exposure is relatively low, is to get to grips with the complexity of the regulation and tackle the risks arising from the fact the party liable for penalties – the DoC holder, or possibly shipowner – is not the one responsible for emissions, which is typically the charterer.

“As well as having costs oversight, companies require reliable monitoring and reporting mechanisms with high-quality emissions data. They must also have in place complex contractual arrangements and sound administrative processes to manage compliance and mitigate the financial consequences of the new regulation,” Grell concludes.

Related: FuelEU: New regulation leaves DoC holder with fuel liabilities risk, says OceanScore
Related: ‘Big opportunity’ for bunker traders, suppliers on upcoming FuelEU regulation, forecasts OceanScore

 

Photo credit: OceanScore
Published: 12 July, 2024

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Emissions reporting

Veson taps Veracity by DNV for verified emissions reporting

Product integration connects Veson’s IMOS with the Veracity platform, enabling emissions figures confirmed by DNV to flow directly into IMOS.

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Veson taps Veracity by DNV for verified emissions reporting

Maritime data and freight management solutions provider Veson Nautical (Veson), on Monday (27 April) has announced a strategic partnership with independent industry cloud platform, Veracity by DNV, to bring verified emissions data into the heart of operational and commercial shipping workflows. 

The product integration connects Veson’s IMOS with the Veracity platform, enabling emissions figures confirmed by DNV to flow directly into IMOS. Within IMOS, these figures are clearly tagged as verified and integrated directly into voyage financials and P&L — reducing reliance on disconnected systems and manual re-entry.   

The integration addresses the growing need for maritime operators to incorporate compliance and automated data quality checks into daily voyage decisions, P&L tracking, and regulatory reporting. By embedding these inputs directly into live P&L calculations, shipping companies can improve the accuracy of voyage results, reach settlement faster, and reduce audit risk. 

“This collaboration between Veson and Veracity by DNV is an exciting development for us at Hafnia,” said Michael Rasmussen, General Manager, Pool Management at Hafnia. 

“We have historically spent significant time toggling between systems to reconcile emissions data. Having verified, accurate data in one place has the potential to streamline that workflow and make it easier for our teams to work with trusted figures in their day-to-day operations.”  

Looking ahead, the partnership will further expand into an end-to-end emissions reporting and verification workflow. Operational vessel data can be automatically transferred from IMOS to DNV’s Veracity platform, where it can be quality-assured in line with the Operational Vessel Data (OVD) standard and passed to DNV’s verification services in Emissions Connect. 

This will provide joint customers with a continuous data flow from data collection to verified emissions data, which can be used to meet evolving frameworks such as EU ETS, FuelEUMaritime, and additional commercial use cases.

“The industry is moving toward a model where verified data is central to both compliance and commercial performance,” said Sean Riley, President and Chief Operating Officer at Veson Nautical. “With DNV we are connecting those two worlds, bringing trusted emissions data directly into the workflows that drive day-to-day decisions and voyage P&L outcomes.” 

“Together with Veson, we are demonstrating how verified data can unlock new value in commercial operations,” said Mikkel Skou, Executive Director, Veracity by DNV. 

“This partnership is a strong example of our envisioned maritime data ecosystem in action; a collaboration that enables our common customers to use their data as a trusted foundation for better decisions, stronger collaboration, and more efficient operations.”  

The partnership builds on Veracity by DNV’s extensive data network, which has connectivity to more than 65,000 vessels worldwide through automated access to verified data. As part of Veson’s expanding Platform Partner Network, DNV extends that reach into the core system where maritime commerce is managed — giving shipping companies access to trusted data within a more connected ecosystem.

 

Photo credit: Veson Nautical
Published: 28 April, 2026

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FuelEU

DNV verifies Titan’s first FuelEU Maritime Pool

Company shared that its first FuelEU pool included several hundred vessels, balancing out operators with compliance deficits with those having positive compliance balances.

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DNV verifies Titan’s first FuelEU Maritime Pool

LNG bunker fuel supplier Titan Clean Fuels, part of Molgas, on Friday (24 April) said it has successfully concluded its first pooling exercise for the compliance period 2025 under the FuelEU Maritime regulation, with verification provided by classification society DNV. 

Titan Clean Fuels shared that its first FuelEU pool included several hundred vessels, balancing out operators with compliance deficits with those having positive compliance balances.

“The conclusion of this first pooling round is providing the proof of concept for our FuelEU pooling service, which we are aiming to roll out to the benefit of even more over- and under-compliant vessels in 2026 and the following years,” said Grégoire Hartig, Commercial Director at Titan.

Titan manages the FuelEU Pooling process from end to end, including the provision of over-compliant LBM, accepting or excluding new vessels, and the verification of the pool by DNV. It takes full contractual responsibility along the chain. This means it can drive the generation of compliance and respond to bunker and pooling market dynamics. Its know-your-customer (KYC) processes also ensure all pooling counterparts fulfil their financial commitments and abide by sanctions.

As a bunker vessel owner, Titan also manages its own ships in the pool. In this pooling period, approximately 73% of the LNG consumption by Titan’s Optimus bunker vessel was liquefied biomethane (LBM/bio-LNG). Titan expects that to be about 100% LBM in the next pooling phase.

“Pooling was designed to provide a competitive advantage to all alternative fuels, with LNG and LBM in particular delivering on the regulation’s potential today. Our customers running LNG-fuelled vessels were able to benefit from their early investment into cleaner propulsion, and several LNG-fuelled vessels chose to run on LBM, backed by the value generated from pooling,” Hartig added.

According to Titan, this progress showed that the European Commission has designed and implemented FuelEU Maritime well. The pooling mechanism is an essential, flexible and well-thought-out tool that smoothly but firmly pushes the shipping industry’s transition towards low-carbon propulsion.

“As shipowners and operators look to improve their environmental performance, create value and manage their exposure to FuelEU penalties, pooling is set to be a shipping trend to watch in 2026 and beyond,” the company added. 

 

Photo credit: Titan Clean Fuels
Published: 27 April, 2026

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FuelEU

BBC Chartering partners with Ahti Pool for FuelEU Maritime compliance

Under the agreement, BBC Chartering will purchase 5,000 tCO2e through Ahti Pool to fulfil its compliance obligations.

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BBC Chartering partners with Ahti Pool for FuelEU Maritime compliance

Ahti Climate on Wednesday (25 March) announced that BBC Chartering has signed an agreement to partner with the Ahti Pool to deliver the FuelEU Maritime compliance for several of its vessels.

Under the agreement, BBC Chartering will purchase 5,000 tCO2e through Ahti Pool to fulfil its compliance obligations.

Ahti Pool offers a straightforward, cost‑efficient route to FuelEU Maritime compliance. Pool members share compliance obligations across participating ships, benefiting from the Pool’s economies of scale.

Ahti Pool is a fully neutral FuelEU Maritime solution and is not tied to any single compliance option. In Ahti Pool’s experience, a typical ship will need approximately 150-200 tCO2e to fulfil its FuelEU Maritime compliance obligations in 2026.

By joining Ahti Pool, BBC Chartering gains access to a proprietary emissions‑management platform, market‑leading pooling mechanisms and bunker sourcing that are designed specifically to deliver cost‑effective compliance with FuelEU Maritime.

Ahti Pool manages hundreds of vessels from leading owners and operators – including Van Weelde Group, Bore, Spliethoff, Stenersen and Neste – and administers more than EUR 100 million of emissions exposure. Its model lets members transfer emissions savings from over‑complying ships to those needing additional compliance, helping avoid penalties and creating potential financial upside through use of renewable green fuels.

Christoph Deters, Chief Operations Officer at BBC Chartering, said: “After analysing available FuelEU Maritime compliance options and assessing the costs and resources required we have chosen to enroll part of the BBC Chartering fleet into Ahti Pool. 

“Being part of Ahti Pool will enable us to optimize our compliance costs and support our wider decarbonisation strategy while holding up our service model “Any port. Any cargo.”

Risto‑Juhani Kariranta, Chief Executive Officer at Ahti Climate, said: “We are delighted to welcome BBC Chartering into Ahti Pool. BBC’s scale, operational reach and commitment to environmentally conscious shipping strengthen the Pool’s capacity to deliver cost‑effective FuelEU compliance. 

“The arrival of BBC Chartering into Ahti Pool is testament to our pooling mechanisms’ ability to make the green transition more affordable and practical for shipowners and operators.”

 

Photo credit: BBC Chartering
Published: 30 March, 2026

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