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Odfjell: Scrubbers don't make sense for IMO 2020

While there are certain scenarios that would make scrubber's an attractive solution for IMO 2020 compliance, Odfjell CEO Kristian Mørch believes that overall the technology does not make sense.

The below is an excerpt of an article in Ship & Bunker, published August 29, 2018.
 

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"It's something we’ve spent a lot of time analyzing and trying to understand. I think fundamentally we have difficulty in seeing why an industry with 60,000 ships should try and solve a problem that actually should be solved ashore. The people that supply in the bunker market will have to adapt to whatever regulation goes on in that market."

Kristian Mørch, CEO

While a scrubber solution "intuitively doesn’t make sense," Mørch said there are still scenarios where it "could be quite an attractive investment," including where the spread between HSFO bunkers and complaint fuel is $300.

"But it would be a $90 million to $100 million decision  by Odfjell and we’re not convinced that that spread will stay as wide as it is"


(...) Ultimately, Odfjell is focussing on a fuel-based approach to compliance, with Bunker Adjustment Factor (BAF) clauses in its contracts to protect against swings in bunker costs. That all said, like Maersk, Mørch said Odfjell is still considering scrubbers for a few ships "just to make sure we understand the technology and the implications of operating scrubbers."

"They are not as easy animals to operate as most people will make them, so we need to make sure we understand the technology. But at the moment we don’t think scrubbers make sense."


Read the article on shipandbunker.com. 

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