Swings and roundabouts in the fuel price game

It has been judgment day for the region’s bunker market. January heralded in a new era as strict low sulfur emission rules came into force for those operating to, from and in the Caribbean.

Strangely enough, then, it’s not the falling oil prices that were exercising the minds of shipowners. Welcome though these falls may be, it’s the cost of buying expensive Marine Gas Oil (MGO) instead of Heavy Fuel Oil – even its pricier, cleaner, lower sulfur variant – that’s making life tough. So at a time when it might be imagined that the shipping industry would be gaining dollars from lower operating costs, ‘low sulfur’ is snatching back these gains.

The Caribbean is at the forefront of these tough new restrictions. The United States Caribbean Sea Area is one of the four IMO-designated Emission Control Areas (EMAs), where the output of sulfur oxides is restricted.

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