In a recent development, Scorpio Tankers Inc. has announced that they are installing exhaust gas cleaning systems across its fleet. The global marine transportation company has signed an agreement with third parties to purchase exhaust gas cleaning systems for 42 of its vessels in 2019 and for 10 of its vessels in 2020, says a press release published on their website.
Details of the Agreement
- The total value of these agreements is estimated to be $79.6 million.
- The systems that are being fitted are of ‘hybrid ready’ design, which allows them to be upgraded to a ‘closed loop’ configuration at a future date.
- As part of the above-mentioned agreement, Scorpio Tankers also has an option to purchase exhaust gas cleaning systems for up to 28 additional vessels in 2020.
- “Scorpio had previously announced it would be fitting 146 scrubbers to its tankers and bulkers to comply with the IMO 2020 sulphur cap at a price range of $1.5m to $2.5m per unit”, writes Seatrade Maritime Editor Marcus Hand.
- So far media reports suggest that Scorpio hasn’t revealed the name of the scrubber manufacturer.
- The company also announced that Scorpio Bulkers would be fitting 18 hybrid-ready scrubbers systems to its vessels in 2019 and 10 more in 2020 at a cost of $42.4m.
- In addition, Scorpio Tankers has options for 28 more systems and Scorpio Bulkers options for 18 in 2020.
Why is it important?
The announcement on fitting open-loop, hybrid-ready scrubbers comes as one of the world’s largest ports – Singapore – announced it would ban the operation of open-loop scrubbers in its waters from 2020.
The installation of scrubbers to meet the requirements of the 2020 sulphur cap is becoming increasingly controversial with in particular open-loop scrubbers seen as simply transferring sulphur pollution from the air to the sea.
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Source: Seatrade Maritime
