China’s Refiners Not Impacted by Tighter Marine Fuel Regs

摘要

Chinese refiners are unlikely to recalibrate to meet the government’s proposed stricter rules on marine fuel specifications from 2019 as there is no economic incentive, oil trading and refining sources say. Under the new regulations announced earlier this month, Beijing will apply a 0.5 wt% sulfur content limit for vessels sailing within 12 nautical miles of the coast from 2019 onward. The government intends to tighten the specification to under 0.1 wt% sulfur from 2020 in order to meet International Maritime Organization global caps for sulfur in fuel oil starting that year (IOD Sep.27’17).