As IMO’s 2020 global sulfur limit comes into force, 

countries have taken active steps toward compliance, 

and upstream and downstream companies in the industry 

have also made preparations and plans. Research shows 

that there will three major changes to the consumption of 

marine fuel:

(1) Switch to low sulfur fuel oil (less than 0.50% m/m in 

sulfur content) or marine gas oil (MGO). Low sulfur heavy 

marine fuel is all-in-all the most economical and widely 

used solution at present. While this fuel is more expensive 

to produce (and therefore more costly to run on), it can be

used in most ships today without additional or modified 

equipment.

(2) Installation of an exhaust gas cleaning system 

(“scrubber”) in ships, so that they can still use marine 

fuels with sulfur content no higher than 3.50% m/m. 

Ship owners need to weigh the savings from the use 

of cheaper high sulfur fuels against the investment in 

additional equipment and the issue of disposing of the 

wastewater and other desulfurization-related liquid 

wastes. At present, countries and regions including China, 

the United States, Singapore, Germany, Belgium, Norway, 

and United Arab Emirates have expressly prohibited 

ships on international voyages from discharging, in their 

territorial waters, washwater from open-loop scrubbers, 

while countries including Japan and South Africa still allow 

it.

(3) Conversion to alternative energies such as liquefied 

natural gas (LNG). While LNG is an option, currently 

there are very few ocean-going ships capable of using 

it as fuel. Furthermore, the lack of resupply facilities and 

the high cost of LNG are also challenges that need to be 

overcome.

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