Ship king: installation of desulphurization equipment to deal with the 2020 new regulations is absurd!

In June, Frontline, the owner of a large tanker, announced that it would buy a 20% stake in Feen Marine Scrubbers, a desulfurization equipment manufacturer, and would not plan to install desulfurization equipment for as many as 36 of its fleets.

Golden Ocean, owner of the listed dry bulk carrier, said it would install desulfurization equipment for 16 large dry bulk carriers and nine other vessels if the timing was right. The total is up to 25. (Reference: 2020 sulfur restriction! The options for the world's top shipping companies are basically coming out!

According to the latest news, both companies appear to be inclined to install Scrubber to meet the 2020 global sulfur limit.

In fact, both companies are Norway's Frederickson company.

But it is worth mentioning that Frederickson, in a recent interview, did not have much confidence in installing desulfurization equipment to meet the 2020 sulfur limit.

Frederickson said the move to install desulfurization equipment was "nonsense" and said he believed there were alternatives before the 2020 deadline.

The world's second largest ship management company CEO: installation of desulfurization equipment is absolutely crazy "absolutely insane"!

In June, Bjorn Hojgaard, chief executive of Anglo-Eastern Group, the world's second-largest shipping company, pointed out that installing desulfurization equipment would bring extra deadweight, consume more oil and electricity, and would also affect the stability of ships, so it was It is considered absolutely crazy to install desulfurization equipment to cope with sulfur restriction regulations.

Bjorn Hojgaard, according to regulations, about 60,000 ships worldwide need to meet sulfur limits, and installing desulfurization equipment on all of them would cost the shipping industry nearly $200 billion. He said the average cost of a desulfurization facility was $1.5 million, plus the cost of refitting and other possible additional costs, which cost an average of $3 million per ship.

In addition, Bjorn Hojgaard said that after installing the desulfurization equipment, the weight of the desulfurization equipment itself, the weight of the cleaning water, the weight of the pump, and various other mechanical and electrical equipment, according to the equipment specifications, will bring an additional 120-150 tons of weight to the ship. These additional weights will also affect the stability of the ship, which needs to be further adjusted.

On the other hand, desulfurization equipment requires additional power consumption, which may require ships to start additional generators to increase fuel consumption.

Not only that, the installation of desulfurization equipment, long-term guarantee of water pressure, pipeline corrosion, how to deal with the removal of wastewater (note that these purified wastewater contains not only sulfur, but also smoke and dust, and even oil pollution) are all problems. In addition, the addition of a new set of equipment also means the need for someone to operate and maintain, which is an additional burden for seafarers.

"Adding desulphurization equipment to ships is absolutely insane" absolutely insane. "

Bjorn Hojgaard said we made the comments after a year-long assessment of ships equipped with desulfurization equipment. In addition, the Chinese and British ship managers have done many studies.

"We manage 632 ships, and I think that no more than 10% of the ships will choose to install desulphurization equipment."

In addition, it is noteworthy that Bjorn Hojgaard expressed his belief that only a few of the world's approximately 60,000 ships will eventually install desulfurization equipment (see: 2020, only 2% of the world's ships will install Scrubber, and low-sulfur oil will remain the mainstream!) When the new regulations come into force, the shipping industry will face the shortage of traditional high sulfur oil.

Hojgaard explained that most of the 300 million tons of high-sulfur fuel oil in the oil refining industry went to shipping and power plants. Once the new sulfur limit came into force on January 1, 2020, the demand for high-sulfur oil would fall along the feeder line, and refineries would also drastically reduce production of high-sulfur oil to produce more low-sulfur oil.

When most shipowners start using low-sulfur oil, it will be more difficult for ships that are still using conventional fuel to obtain high-sulfur fuel. Why? Because all the shipping and transportation systems are mainly low sulfur fuel.

"If the demand for high-sulfur fuel oil falls by 98%, shipowners and ship operators will no longer be able to buy high-sulfur oil."

Who is more powerful in the market competition between oil producers and desulfurization equipment producers? We had energy lobbies up to the White House, and I'm afraid very few have heard of desulfurization equipment manufacturers. Is BP, SHELL, CHEVRON more powerful, or is Vasiland, Alfa Laval and a bunch of unknown manufacturers more powerful?