The International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2020 sulphur cap which requires vessels to use 0.50% sulphur limit marine fuel will create increased demand for crude and drive the price of brent crude to as much as $90 per barrel by 2020, believes Morgan Stanley analysts.
“We foresee a scramble for middle distillates that will drive crack spreads higher and drag oil prices with it,” writes Martijn Rats in a report as quoted by Bloomberg.
The system configurations of certain refiners such favour middle distillate production and minimal high-sulphur fuel oil output, such as Repsol SA, Reliance Industries Ltd., Valero Energy Corp. and Tupras Turkiye Petrol Rafinerileri AS, will be among those which will see “the most advantageous combination after 2019,” he suggests.
The increased use of distillate fuels by vessels to meet the IMO 0.50% sulphur cap is expected to boost demand by an additional 1.5 million barrels a day by 2020.
However, current refining capacity will not be enough to meet the world’s total demand of 5.7 million barrels a day by 2020.
“The last period of severe middle distillate tightness occurred in late-2007/early-2008 and arguably was the critical factor that drove up Brent prices in that period,” Rats wrote; he referred to the period when crude oil approached levels close to $150 a barrel.
“We expect the crude oil market to remain under-supplied and inventories to continue to draw,” the bank said. “This will likely underpin prices.”
Published: 18 May, 2018
As part of the partnership, both parties are launching a grant call for solutions relating to energy storage systems and smart power grids for the offshore and marine environment.
Most ships on Yangtze River presently use diesel fuel leading to exhaust gas such as nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide becoming a source of air pollution.
Partnership adds $10 million in funding to boost Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation’s efforts in conducting pilots and trials.
Some bunker buyers point out less need to manually clean out vessels' fuel tanks by starting transition early.
More prompt LSMGO available in Rotterdam; ARA’s gasoil stocks recover for second consecutive week; slight congestion in Gibraltar.
Majority of VLSFO components come from low cost distillate and low sulphur petrochemical streams which can be readily separated to form distillate sludge.
Firm hopes to leverage partnership in Greece as a springboard to expand into neighbouring and overseas markets including Europe and China, says Robin Van Elderen, Regional Head Bunkers, Europe, Sing Fuels.
Singapore can help less developed countries in SouthEast Asia through ‘piloting and scaling fuels and technology as well as a leading hub for green finance’, said DNV Group President and CEO Remi Eriksen.
Octamar™ Ultra HF, Octamar™ Complete, and Octamar™ F35C were found to have improved the fuel economy while reducing exhaust gas and other emissions of marine engines in a series of trials, states report.
Disposal of evidence has resulted in Singapore not being able to provide full details to the United Nationals Panel of Experts which sought information regarding the case, says Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
‘We are proud to be amongst the first to show the successful steps taken by Singapore’s bunkering ecosystem to remain forward thinking and relevant,’ Choong Sheen Mao, Director of EMF, tells Manifold Times.
‘With the launch of a common data infrastructure, Kenoil aims to continue achieving an end to end visibility and transparency on the bunker data supply chain,’ states Kenoil Managing Director.
