International Seaways to equip up to 10 VLCCs with scrubbers ahead of IMO 2020

International Seaways has signed contracts with Norway's Clean Marine AS to purchase seven exhaust gas cleaning systems, commonly known as scrubbers, to install on 50% of its VLCC fleet of 14 vessels, the company announced Monday.

The scrubbers are to be installed by a qualified system installer on seven of the 10 modern VLCCs of the fleet in time for the International Maritime Organization's mandated bunker sulfur limit to drop from currently 3.5% sulfur to 0.5% sulfur on January 1, 2020, the statement said.

The installation of scrubbers allows shipowners to continue using 3.5% sulfur bunkers as the exhaust gas cleaning systems bring emissions in line with the tough 0.5% sulfur limit on board the vessel.

Other compliance options include the use of marine gas oil or low-sulfur bunker fuels, or the installation of dual-fuel engines to use LNG, LPG or methane as bunker fuel.

International Seaways has an option for another three scrubbers covering the remaining three modern VLCCs in its fleet.

The 10 modern VLCCs include the 2016 built Gener8 Supreme, Gener8 Militiades, Gener8 Chiotis, Gener8 Andriotis, the 2015 built Gener8 Strength and Gener8 Success, the 2011 built Seaways Kilimanjaro, Seaways McKinley and the 2010 built Seaways Everest and Seaways Raffles.

The scrubber installations strengthen International Seaway's ability to take advantage of a potential strong tanker market resulting from the IMO regulations, as both crude and product tankers stand to benefit from increased transportation demand, according to CEO and President Lois Zabrocky.

International Seaway's public statement came on the heals of French container shipping company CMA CGM announcing plans to order several scrubbers late Monday.

Scrubber orders and installations have been quadrupling in 2018 in preparation for the IMO 2020 sulfur mandate from 344 units installed and ordered in January to around 1,100 units in September, according to industry sources.

source: spglobal