Environmentally friendly shipping - a ship operators view

摘要

AWL is well known for its commitment to the marine environment, highlighted by its sole sponsorship of the WWF's (World Wildlife Fundl) High Seas Conservation Programme and has been a user of low sulphur fuel since 2001 and has just reported its biggest ever low sulphur bunker contract (see News in this issue). However Iversen says that he has major reservations about the current suggestion that the shipping industry should move to distillates. He sees problems with the increased CO_2 output that would result from the extra refining that would be necessary, not to mention the volume of residual that would have to be disposed of rather than being burnt by the shipping industry as is the case now. Indeed his philosophy is that it is better to 'do rather than just talk, and take small steps which will achieve a large impact and not wait for big solutions.' WWL's experience of burning distillates in the past has exposed a cost problem in that the savings that would result in maintenance and other areas could only be justified by a much smaller differential in the relative costs of the two types of fuel. Burning low sulphur fuel has cost WWL, Iversen says, around US$30M more a year in bunker costs but is seen as a positive for the environment.