VPS looking at the wider concerns over fuel changes

“I am actually pleased that the issue on the environment and the sulphur content of fuel came out,” Choudhuri told Sea Asia Today. Fuel tester VPS is a sponsor of Sea Asia 2015. “The way I see it is our work fitting into this bigger scenario.”

He said VPS sees three key forces within the sector of the industry that the company operates in.

The first was the move to distillate fuels in certain parts of the world. “The fuel mix is dramatically changing. The fact we have a major shift to distillate fuels this year, one would have thought, ‘Here comes a fantastic new fuel’. But the world is not as simple as that, and some of the issues we see have significant issues on safety.”

The second area involved the clarity and implementation of regulation, and the point being made on the panel that if only some followed new regulations that this was an unfair world. “And that brings us onto the fuel standard – why are the majority of shipowners using a standard that is 15 years old, while a handful of shipowners are using the new standard ISO8217:2010,” he explained.

The third change Choudhuri sees is the development of hybrid fuels that can be used instead of distillates. “I’m seeing this in a major way in the fuel management of ships, as part of the bigger picture.”