OMV to start IMO compliant marine fuel sales in 4Q

Austrian integrated oil and gas firm OMV will start sales of 0.5pc sulphur marine fuel compliant with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) 0.5pc limit due to come into force in 2020 in the fourth quarter of this year.

OMV said it will supply 0.5pc sulphur marine fuel at the Italian ports of Venice and Trieste, and the port of Constanta in Romania. It will produce the IMO compliant fuels at its 200,000 b/d Schwechat refinery in Austria and at the 84,000 b/d Ploiesti plant in Romania, which is operated by its subsidiary OMV Petrom.

OMV's 0.5pc sulphur fuel will meet the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) 8217:2017 specifications that governs fuel properties such as density, acid, water and metals content, and flash point.

The firm will also continue to supply marine gasoil (MGO) and high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO).

Under the new IMO regulation, ships must limit sulphur emissions in exhaust fumes to 0.5pc, down from a current maximum of 3.5pc. Shipowners will either have to burn new 0.5pc marine fuels, use marine gasoil (MGO) or run LNG to comply with the cap. They can also fit vessels with exhaust scrubbers to continue to burn high-sulphur fuel oil.