One year on, indications are that the transition to 2020 sulphur cap has been extremely smooth, "a testament to the preparations of all stakeholders prior to the new rules entering into force", IMO said.

The upper limit of the sulphur content of ships' fuel oil was reduced to 0.5% (from 3.5%) - under the so-called "IMO 2020" regulation prescribed in the MARPOL Convention, bringing about a 70% cut in total sulphur oxide emissions from shipping.

Roel Hoenders, Head of Air Pollution andEnergy Efficiency at IMO said:

Through 2020, just 55 cases of 0.50% compliant fuel being unavailable had been reported in IMO's Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS). Given that more than 60,000 ships plied the world's oceans in trade last year, this was a remarkably low percentage of ships encountering difficulty in obtaining compliant fuel,

The implementation of IMO 2020 did not cause any disruptions in trade even during the COVID-19 pandemic, IMO noted, when cargo-carrying ships continued to deliver goods around the world.

While the methods for compliance with IMO 2020 varied among compliant fuels, such as very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) and marine gas oil (MGO), and scrubbers, the majority of ships trading worldwide switched from using heavy fuel oil (HFO) to using VLSFO.

Read More: IMO Secretary-General: Strong Statement against “No Crew Change” Clauses

Guidance issued by IMO on dealing with the new fuel blends in advance of the new requirement addressed implications of switching to VLSFO, including assessing and managing risks and highlighting potential safety risks, so that the risks can be mitigated.

Through 2020, and into 2021 to date, IMO has not received any reports of safety issues linked to VLSFO.

Nonetheless, during 2020, the IMO MSC 102 correspondence group considered fuel oil safety issues in general and the need for further mandatory requirements to ensure fuel oil supplied meets the required standards and quality. The report will be discussed at the next session of IMO's Maritime Safety Committee, MSC 103, in May 2021.

Prior to that, the eighth session of the Sub-Committee on Prevention of Pollution from Ships (PPR 8), scheduled to meet remotely from 22 to 26 March 2021, will further consider VLSFO fuel quality issues, including possible effects on black carbon emissions.

Meanwhile, over 2,350 scrubber systems have formally been reported to IMO as an approved "equivalent method" by Administrations (flag States).

Fuel oil quality requirements
- Provisions in regulation 18 of Annex VI of MARPOL regulate fuel oil quality. SOLAS covers issues such as flashpoint (SOLAS regulation II- 2/4.2.1).
- Apart from the requirements in MARPOL Annex VI and SOLAS, VLSFO is required to meet ISO standard 8217 as well as ISO Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 23263, providing guidance as to the application of the existing ISO 8217 marine fuel standard to 0.50% sulphur limit compliant fuel oils.
- These measures and standards are designed to ensure ships' safety and the protection of the marine environment and oceans.

Source: Safety 4 Sea