Maersk calls for effective enforcement of ECAs

From next year the sulphur limit in ECAs in coastal areas of North America and North Europe will drop from 1% at present to 0.1%. To meet these requirements owners and operators will likely have to switch to using more expensive marine gas oil (MGO) in coastal areas or fit scrubbers.

“We see a very strong and effective enforcement regime in North America we can’t say the same is happening in Europe, and we fear that might lead to non-compliance on the part of some actors in the shipping industry,” Jacob Sterling, head of sustainability for Maersk Line, told a media briefing in Singapore recently.

Sterling said its own record showed that in 2012 no vessels in the entire Maersk fleet of both tankers and containerships had undergone a fuel inspection in North Europe. It was also noted that when violations of low sulphur regulations the fines were not high enough to discourage owners from doing the same thing again.

“We do support the regulation coming in 2015, it makes a lot of sense, and it's a level playing field, but when the regulators do that they also have to ensure it is effectively enforced,” Sterling said.

“We will follow the rules and we hope everybody else in the industry will do the same but we need to be sure to have a truly level playing field.”