Operators stay vigilant! The FuelEU legislation is progressing...

The EU Parliament has voted on several amendments to the EU Commission proposal, known as FuelEU. This is the legislation that will impose mandatory average well-to-wake emission factors for fuel used in shipping within European waters.

The ambition of this legislation is to promote a speedy transition of low or zero-emissions fuels to be used by the ship operators. As such, it is a commendable objective. However, as always, when such types of legislation are on the table, the practical application has to be kept in mind.?

Reading the proposed amendments, two issues caught my attention:

First - The Parliament wishes to initially promote, but later make it mandatory, the use a certain percentage of RFNBO’s (fuels made from renewable sources other than biomass). Again, a commendable initiative, Power-to-X fuels must be the end game! But, its gradual introduction needs careful consideration. Should the proposed amendments be carried through, a minimum of 2% RFNBO’s should be used onboard ships. I see a potential issue here, as these fuels generally are not on the market yet and thus, there must be some uncertainty on whether these new fuels will be mixable with the other fuels used in the engines onboard a ship. If they are not mixable, separate bunkering and engine systems might be required onboard ships to comply.?

A provision that the RFNBO’s should be able to be blended with more traditional fuels should perhaps been considered.

Second - The other issues I have with the Parliaments text is that it uses several terms that are not clearly defined. “Transshipment port” as a type of port, “TEU” as a description of a vessels size, “substantial” as reference to part of a ship’s cargo, just to mention a few. I hope this gets clarified in the onward process, enabling the industry to fully understand what they are supposed to do.

The FuelEU legislation will be the most complex of all the current decarbonizing initiatives in the pipeline and operators need to prepare carefully.?Operators, stay vigilant!

Are you wondering what this might mean for you? Get in touch with Poul at?[email protected]?for a discussion on strategic and regulatory climate and environmental issues heading your way.