22JUL2019 - NEWS - VPS forecasts marine fuel quality trends facing shipping industry in 2020

The shipping industry is expected to face several issues regarding marine fuel quality from 2020, says the Group Commercial & Business Development Director of international fuel testing and inspection company Veritas Petroleum Services (VPS).Steve Bee was presenting at the VPS Seminar 2019 in Singapore on Tuesday (16 July) when he forecasted potential quality trends for residual, distillate and Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO).“Today’s marine fuel supply chain can be very complex with many participants,” he told delegates during the start of his speech.Quality for residual marine fuel will be “difficult to predict” in the beginning of 2020 due to a significant short-term drop in demand during the period, according to Bee.However, he notes 11% of all residual fuel tested by VPS in 2018 exceeding the specification for at least one ISO 8217 test parameter. In 2018, the most frequent off-specs were cat fines, sodium, flash point, and bunker contamination.