By Wasana Nadeeshani Sellahewa
(Commonwealth) _ As 2023 gets underway, maritime experts are examining their crystal balls to identify any patterns that could come to characterize the year. Since shipping stakeholders have yet to settle on a fair strategy to reduce the sector’s carbon emissions, decarbonization will undoubtedly stay at the forefront of the discussion.
The year 2023 in particular may be a turning point for CII (Carbon Intensity Indicator) legislation. If so, will it be successful? Following the recent publication of Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO)’s CII Operations Clause for Time Charter Parties, the issue has gained even more attention. With owners and charterers disagreeing on their responsibilities for executing CII regulations, it is generally believed that the BIMCO Clause has caused greater uncertainty.
Leading shipowners and charterers recently published an open letter in which they sharply criticized BIMCO’s CII Operations Clause as being harmful to the parties’ business interests. Given the challenges that CII is presently facing, some analysts have come out to forecast what would probably happen to CII rules in 2023.
“We shall see how CII will be interred next to SEEMP (Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan) in the graveyard of IMO’s apparent acts of meeting the global GHG objectives, according to my hidden crystal ball of how the year 2023 will appear in the shipping realm. BIMCO had the chance to turn it into anything, but instead they put the last spike to its coffin. CII had little hope from the start.”, said Harilaos Psaraftis, a professor of maritime transport at the Technical University of Denmark. He further said that there is some possibility for a carbon fee to advance at the IMO in 2023, maybe the only way that green fuels may ever become really competitive.
Some researchers predict that alternative fuels will start to be used in shipping in 2023. LNG and biofuels are anticipated to grow in popularity this year. The business will begin providing biofuel to its shipping clients in Singapore starting in 2023, according to a recent announcement by TotalEnergies Vice President for Marine Fuels Louise Tricoire.
Tricoire stated at the Singapore International Bunkering Conference and Exhibition (SIBCON 2022), “We will be able to produce biofuels using new UCOME (Used Cooking Oil Methyl Ester) based supply chain in Singapore.
Singapore’s readiness for biofuel bunkering has been greatly improved by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPAcreation )’s of a provisional national quality standard for marine biofuel. By doing this, MPA hopes to attain a five million mt/year capacity by 2030.
In 2022, the industry had a very high level of interest in using LNG as a maritime fuel. In the third quarter of 2022, 288 LNG-capable boats were ordered, according to Clarksons Research. According to tonnage, this accounts for 54% of all orders.
The versatility of LNG-capable boats makes them attractive. Despite the continued instability of the LNG energy market, the demand for LNG-capable ships is projected to skyrocket in 2023 when gas prices are predicted to stabilize.
Another alternative shipping fuel that is expected to see commercial success in 2023 is methanol. Major shipping companies like Maersk and COSCO pledged billions of dollars to the construction of methanol-powered containerships in 2022.
A 2100 TEU feeder vessel powered by methanol is already scheduled to arrive at Maersk in mid-2023. This is a component of Maersk’s preliminary planning for handling methanol-fueled ships. The technology required to create methanol fuel is well developed, thus it is simple to convert any port site with methanol and oil bunkering capabilities to provide methanol as marine fuel.
