The transition to low-sulphur marine fuels has been extremely smooth, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) said, with only a tiny number of reported cases of fuel unavailability and no reported cases of safety issues.
The IMO's 0.5pc sulphur cap kicked in at the start of last year, banning the use of marine fuels with a sulphur content above 0.5pc unless a ship is installed with technology such as the exhaust cleaning systems known as scrubbers. Many participants voiced fears about disruption arising from the supply and quality of new IMO-compliant blends.
But, the IMO said there were just 55 cases of 0.5pc fuel oil being unavailable when required in 2020, when around 60,000 ships were in service globally, and it said it said it has received no reports of safety issues linked to the low-sulphur fuels.
"All indications are that there have been no significant issues with supply," said the IMO's head of air pollution and energy efficiency Roel Hoenders.
Others have reported disputes over quality. Law firm Hill & Dickinson said in December that while these were rare, they have occurred all over the world, and shipping association Bimco said last year a significant number of shipping industry participants had reported quality issues from the new blends.
Lloyd's Register's Fuel Oil Bunker Analysis and Advisory Service (Fobas) said in August that the most common problem was high sediment levels, and that around a quarter of issues reported between January-July 2020 were down to sulphur content.
Since the IMO cap was introduced, 0.5pc fuel oil has become the dominant marine fuel, displacing 3.5pc sulphur fuel oil (HSFO). Demand for the latter began to rise later in 2020 as more ships were retrofitted with scrubbers and returned to sea.
