Ship owners criticize Iran Oil Ministry as bunker fuel deadline looms
Iranian ship owners have criticized the country’s Oil Ministry for failing to meet an international deadline for using low-sulfur bunker fuel, saying it would lead to extra costs in maritime transportation.
Yahya Maleki, who represents Iran Ship Owners Union (IRSOU), said on Saturday that the amount of low-sulfur bunker currently produced in Iran would not suffice the increasing demands of ships and vessels involved in the transportation system in the country.
The comments come just ahead of a January 1, 2020 deadline by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) which requires the use of bunker fuel with a sulfur limit of 0.5%, down from current levels of 3.5% or higher.
Maleki said the Iranian Oil Ministry had launched production for low-sulfur bunker at Shazand Refinery, located in central Iran, making it difficult for ships to access the fuel at this time of the year as most of trucks and tankers are involved in transportation of diesel fuel and mazut across the country.
“The ignorance of the Oil Ministry caused the Iranian fleet to lack sufficient low-sulfur fuel three days ahead of the implementation of this (IMO) law around the world,” said the businessman.
Iran had earlier indicted that it would have no technological difficulty producing low-sulfur fuel oil, known as LSFO, to meet the IMO deadline despite a series of tough sanctions imposed by the United States which limits the ability in the country’s oil industry to interact with the rest of the world.
However, Maleki said that Iranian ships, responsible for 80 to 90 percent of the total goods imported into the country, should now use bunkering facilities in the United Arab Emirates to meet the IMO deadline, a move he said would lead to extra costs for consumers.
He said refueling at other major bunkering ports, including in Singapore, would be practically impossible or very expensive for the Iranian ships because of extra money they are supposed to pay to settle sanctions issues.
The IRSOU has sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council to demand the launch of LSFO production at major refineries in the country, said Maleki, adding that current amount of production at Shazand Refinery, just more than half a million tons a year, would meet only a third of the total demand existing in the Iranian maritime sector.
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