Difficult decisions

摘要

As well as being the centenary of the Titanic disaster, this year also marks a full 100 years of commercial ships burning fuel oil as their main power source. The very small proportion of the world fleet making use of alternatives to oil, along with the reduced rate of newbuilding, will ensure that fuel oil, and in particular heavy fuel oil, will remain the main fuel for the shipping industry for at least the next three decades. Beyond that, whether LNG or some other alternative becomes more favoured will depend upon many factors, including new regulation, cost, technology, and investment by fuel suppliers into refining and infrastructure.